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As the federal government shutdown stretches into its fifth week and the impact ripples across the national economy, California leaders are mobilizing to support federal government workers who are working without pay.
But the federal government is pushing back against attempts to give all federal employees in the state unemployment benefits, setting up yet another potential front in the war between the Golden State and the Trump administration. The showdown comes with President Trump promising a “major announcement” Saturday afternoon on the shutdown, with tensions growing in the stalemate with Democrats over a border wall.
I will be making a major announcement concerning the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border, and the Shutdown, tomorrow afternoon at 3 P.M., live from the @WhiteHouse.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2019
“People are stressed out and frustrated. We’re in a financial limbo and it’s uncomfortable,” said Jonas Diño, who protested Friday with dozens of his furloughed colleagues outside NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, many wearing yellow tape across their chests emblazoned with the word “FURLOUGHED.” “We wanna get back to work.”
There are more than 285,000 federal workers in California, according to the latest job estimates, although it’s unclear how many have been impacted by the shutdown. As of Jan. 5, the most recent data available, 1,813 federal workers in California filed claims for unemployment benefits, according to the state.
Federal employees who are furloughed are allowed to apply for unemployment benefits from their states, although they have to repay the state unemployment money once the shutdown is over and they receive back pay, according to federal Labor Department regulations.
But the agency says that federal employees who have been working without pay — such as TSA agents and Coast Guard members — are not allowed to collect unemployment insurance. That’s because they technically are still employed.
Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed to disobey the Labor Department guidance at an appearance with TSA workers at the Sacramento Airport on Thursday.
“We’re going to do it, and shame on them,” he said, calling the Labor Department’s stance “jaw-dropping and extraordinary.”
Still, the federal government does regulate unemployment benefits and could take legal action against California, labor law experts said. Newsom’s move was “the right thing to do” but could lead to a legal fight over the issue, predicted Jane Oates, who ran the Department of Labor division that regulated unemployment benefits during President Obama’s first term.
“We are in uncharted territory here — we’ve never been in a position before where folks are looking at missing their second paycheck,” said Oates, who’s currently the president of the Los Angeles labor rights nonprofit Working Nation. “I think it will not be long before someone takes this to court.”
That could happen if the federal government sues California over its decision to give out unemployment benefits, or possibly if an employee forced to work without pay in another state sues their state government for not offering the same benefits, Oates said. “It really is an untested area,” she said.
Arthur Lazear, an employment lawyer in Oakland, said he would encourage all federal employees in California who aren’t being paid to apply for unemployment benefits from the state, whether they’re still working or not. And he questioned what motive the Trump administration had to block Newsom’s move, considering the money is coming from the states.
“I think it’s pure spite, it’s political and not really in the government’s economic interest,” he said.
Sen. Kamala Harris and two other Senate Democrats introduced legislation this week to clarify that federal government employees forced to work without pay are eligible for unemployment benefits. And the Democratic governors of New York, Michigan and Washington also called Friday for the Labor Department to provide more clarity on whether non-furloughed workers were eligible.
It’s possible that the Labor Department could change its interpretation of labor statutes and allow the states to give out unemployment benefits without a fight. Patrick Henning, the director of California’s Employment Development Department, which handles unemployment benefits, said in a statement that his agency believes they are “following all existing federal and state guidance regarding eligibility” even if they give benefits to government employees working without pay.
Several local governments across California are also stepping up to help impacted federal workers. San Jose is moving forward with a plan to cover TSA agents’ pay with shot-term loans during the shutdown. In Southern California, the city of Long Beach is letting federal workers make arrangements to pay their utility bills once the shutdown lifts.
Nonprofits in the Bay Area and elsewhere in California are also stepping up, with food banks making specific efforts to reach out to government employees affected.
In Washington, Trump and Democratic leaders in Congress seemed no closer Friday to coming to any agreement to end the shutdown. Trump has demanded that Congress approve $5.7 billion for his plan to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, while Democrats have agreed to fund more limited border security measures but not a wall.
Oates, who served in the Obama administration Labor Department during the 16-day government shutdown in 2013, said this month’s gridlock felt far more serious.
“The thing that’s the most scary to me about this one is that there’s no end in sight,” she said.
The shutdown is certainly wearing on federal employees like NASA aerospace engineer Savvy Verma, who was one of about 60 of her colleagues who protested outside the space agency’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field in Mountain View on Friday. Verma, who’s worked at the agency for more than 17 years and focuses on airspace management, said she’s already taken out a personal loan to stay above water after almost a month without pay.
“I need to have enough in the bank to be able to pay my mortgage, and my credit cards as much as I can — and you have to pay your utilities,” she said.
