The president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) has had it with congressional Democrats dragging out the now almost month-long government shutdown. That’s not good news at all for Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Democrats leading the party in the Senate and House of Representatives.
AFGE is the largest union of government employees, with some 820,000 members. Around 95% of political donations from the union’s membership go to Democrats. Yet, the organization’s president, Everett Kelley, released a statement on Oct. 27 that calls for Democrats to end the government shutdown. Despite their attempts to paint Republicans as the culprits, Democrats in the Senate withheld the votes needed to approve the continuing resolution that would provide temporary funding to get the lights back on, so to speak.
“Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,” the statement published on the AFGE website said. “Today I’m making mine: it’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship. Put every single federal worker back on the job with full back pay – today.”
Government Shutdown Riles Government Workers
Though Kelley’s statement did not explicitly point the finger at the Democrats, the implication was clear. Republicans pushed a clean continuing resolution through the House at the end of September. Senate Democrats blocked it, with help from a couple of Republicans. Since then, Senate Minority Leader Schumer has ensured 11 defeats of the same bill. As a result, most federal employees have either been furloughed or are working without pay.
Democrats have tried hard to pin this government shutdown on the GOP, but that narrative has proved unconvincing. Without Democrat votes in the Senate, Republicans cannot get the temporary funding bill through unless they take the so-called nuclear option to get rid of the filibuster.
The statement will certainly be impactful, perhaps spurring a change of heart among Democrats. Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) conceded that the AFGE’s position “has a lot of impact.” Durbin told reporters on Oct. 27, “It’s something we will be discussing this week,” but added, “I’m not announcing any change in my position at this time.” However, he acknowledged, “They’re our friends. We take them seriously.”
During a press conference on the same day the AFGE released its statement, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was asked by a reporter if he thought the union weighing in was a turning point in the government shutdown. “I certainly hope so,” he responded, “It’s a union, you know, and they represent a large amount – there’s 1.4 million federal employees, they represent 800,000 of them, and they said, to your point, quote, ‘pass the CR and open the government.’“
Republicans aren’t generally known for standing their ground in the face of Democrat demands. This time around, they appear to be doing just that. For their part – and the House speaker alluded to it during his press conference – the Democrats find themselves between a rock and a hard place. They can keep blocking votes to end the government shutdown, which an increasing number of Americans are saying is on them, rather than the Republicans, or they can relent and take heat from the radical left, which appears to have now become the dominant force on that side of the political divide.
Has the AFGE tipped the scale? That may depend on whether congressional Democrats believe those 820,000 federal workers will punish them at the ballot box, should they drag this government shutdown out beyond the end of another federal pay period.
