Van Hollen Reintroduces Legislation to Ensure Retroactive Pay to Government Employees

Today, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen joined 25 of his Senate colleagues in the bipartisan introduction of legislation to protect government workers from the detrimental impacts of a government shutdown that was brought on through no fault of their own. The country is now two weeks into the Trump Shutdown – which has shuttered nine federal departments and ground services for American families to a halt. More than 450,000 civil servants are now working without pay – including the men and women providing border security – and over 380,000 federal employees have been furloughed without pay.

 “I have heard from federal workers that I represent who spent Christmas and New Year’s worrying about how they will make ends meet if this shutdown continues. These hardworking men and women have nothing to do with the political gamesmanship that led to the Trump Shutdown, but they’ve had to pay the price,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen. “As we work to end this shutdown, providing our federal workforce with the certainty that they will receive their paycheck is the right thing to do.”

 Senator Van Hollen helped lead the fight to pass the Federal Employee Fair Treatment Act in the Senate before the holidays, and he is pushing hard for the Senate to pass it again. He also successfully pushed the House to include a provision in the funding bill that they introduced this week to make the federal workforce whole. Additionally, the Senator is fighting end the Trump Pay Freeze that took effect days ago and provide a modest 1.9 percent cost-of-living adjustment for civil servants.

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