You want to go where?

The biggest downside is that we will have to pay them anyway. I cannot assume that every single person who is furloughed is doing nothing that benefits the country.

DHS isn't just the TSA. It includes Immigration services, the Coast Guard, FEMA. While I realize that each of these organizations have their plusses and minuses, I can't believe that they will be improved by having their staff furloughed.

GUWonder

I'm not sure if you just pulled a Brian Williams or not, of if I'm doing so now, but I don't recall a TSA slowdown just before and during the 2013 fall government shutdown.

I do recall that CBP's GE interviews being performed during the shutdown were easier to come by in DC and extra-quick compared to usual.

KDS

My recollection is that there was speculation here in FT about that possibility, and I know that I heard some TSOs joking about the furlough effects at a couple of checkpoints, but I don't recall personally experiencing any actual slowdowns.

Randyk47

Kind of. Depends on a number of factors. Most Federal employees furloughed under the sequestration could not work during sequestration and were not paid. That was actually written into the sequester laws. Now there have been other furloughs, like the ones caused by delays in passing a budget authorization, where there was back pay whether the employee worked or not. Gets muddy even to civil servants as there is always the "mission essential", "life and safety", etc., designations that can exempt you from any kind of furlough that aren't particularly clear or well understood.

You want to go where?

Thanks for the additional explanation. In this case, my understanding is that it would not be sequester but a delay in passing a budget authorization, so based on history, that would suggest back pay, although, congress could prevent that.

One of the problems we have had with Congress in the recent past (and it seems moving into the future) is that they criticize the status quo, oppose the actions proposed (or implemented) by the President but fail to propose alternatives.

Randyk47

In the present DHS situation I'd agree that normally, barring some language in the authorization, that employees would get back pay if furloughed. Still a bit unnerving for the employees and it gets old quickly. I'm retired now but Mrs. K still works for the government so I haven't escaped the drama totally. She's a director in her agency so it's not only the personal stress but also her having to deal with the morale of her staff. Despite all the jokes about "working welfare", "did you find work or are you still with the government?", "it's a nasty job but somebody has to do it", and so on the majority of Federal employees take their jobs seriously just like anybody in the private sector.

You want to go where?

You bring up another point which I fully concur with but had chosen not to make. I was looking at it solely from the taxpayer perspective. Although even looking at it from the taxpayer perspective, there is something in what you say. Taxpayers complain about the quality and work ethic of government employees but then allow (through their elected representatives) these kind of shenanigans to take place. How can you expect a strong work ethic when you are so irresponsible as an employer? And yet, even with all this, I know many Federal employees who do have a strong work ethic despite all of this.

Smaug

As someone who considering buying an air ticket for travel on February 28, I am wondering if I need to move up my travel day one day just to be safe.

84fiero

Just to clarify there are two separate kinds of furloughs - both of which occured during 2013.

Due to budget reductions from sequestration, some agencies furloughed employees in order to balance their budget. This would be much like a waitress having her hours cut - you're not "scheduled" to work and thus would never receive pay for those furloughed hours. Nothing was written into the sequestration law, this is an authority that all agencies already have and is known as an Administrative Furlough http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-overs...ative-Furlough It is used to save funds due to downsizing, reduced funding, lack of work, or any budget situation other than a lapse in appropriations. Agencies generally have broad discretion over which employees, job series, etc. will be furloughed under an administrative furlough.

The second kind, a Shutdown Furlough happens when there is a lapse in appropriations and is the kind of furlough at issue here (with respect to employees paid from the relevant annual appropriated funds). There is no guarantee of back pay although historically it has usually occurred most every time, AFAIK.

"mission essential" (or similar term) employees have to work even under an appropriation lapse. Those employees will eventually receive backpay, as the government has received a benefit from their employment.

Some agencies handle the designation of mission essential employees better than others. With some it's indeed a bit of a confusion.

castrobenes

I wouldn't change my travel plans.

The sequence of events if DHS isn't funded won't really start happening until Monday, March 2. Funding lasts through Feb 27, which is a Friday. Furloughed employees will have to go to work Monday to receive their official notices, and secure offices. So although funding may lapse, the true deadline is Monday morning. Any agreement before approximately noon on Monday will cancel the furlough process.

TSOs and most TSA airport personnel are essential. So they won't be furloughed. They will be advised that all scheduled annual leave is cancelled and sick leave may not be paid out. In practice, time off will be case-by-case. But depending on the bill passed by congress, leave will or will not be paid out for employees who take time off.

This won't impact employee paychecks for two week s. TSA employees will receive pay checks for the 2 weeks ending Feb 21 on March 2. That will be a full paycheck for everyone. If the funding lapse continues, TSA employees will receive a partial paycheck for work done through Feb 27 on March 16 (about half a paycheck).

As others have written, there is no guarantee that furloughed employees will receive back pay. But they always have in the past. I can't imagine a scenario in which essential employees aren't paid for work they are directed to do.

Airport operations won't be disrupted until TSOs start missing pay checks. I hope it doesn't happen, but it would be interesting to see how long essential employees would come to work without a paycheck.

WillCAD

I'm not certain, but I think that if you're a gov't employee who has been marked as 'essential', and you just stop showing up a week or two into a government shutdown, you can be disciplined, and possibly even forfeit any of that back pay for the time you did work. I heard a lot of speculation on that during the 2013 shutdown, though of course none of the gov't employees with whom I worked failed to report, so we never got any definitive answer.

InkUnderNails

My personal recollection, certainly anecdotal, was as I was getting the inevitable bag check the TSO remarked that I should plan an extra hour for security the next week if the government shutdown went through and a bunch of them were furloughed.

I replied that I would be happy to get to the airport TWO hours earlier if the shutdown contributed to the elimination of the travesty to the Constitution that the TSA has become.

Or something like that. It has been a while.

Himeno

What was their overreaction to such a reply?

SeriouslyLost

You can't warn them, let alone fire them, for work to rule.

Himeno

The example was not "work to rule". It was a mass sick call creating an illegal strike.