When will federal workers get paid? Reopening the government not as easy as flipping a light switch – USA TODAY

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President Trump thanked furloughed federal workers for their devotion during the shutdown and credited them with helping to make America great again.
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – Getting the government back to full speed following a 35-​​​​​​day shutdown is a bit like trying to turn around an aircraft carrier: It doesn’t happen very quickly.

Now that President Donald Trump and congressional leaders have reached a deal to reopen the government for three weeks, the administration has begun the task of calling back the 800,000 workers who were no longer getting paid from the partial shutdown that began Dec. 22 over a budget impasse tied to the president’s demand for billions in border wall funds.

Many of those workers have been deemed “essential” and been called back from furlough over the past few weeks. But some of those have opted not to show up, resulting in delays at airport security checkpoints and potentially longer waits for tax returns.

The shutdown already has exacted a financial cost: $6 billion as of Jan. 25, according to estimates by S&P Global Ratings. That’s $1.4 billion more than Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion for a wall on the Southern border.

With the shutdown over – at least for now – there are plenty of logistics to carry out: employees to bring back, national parks to reopen, and tax refunds to process. 

Here are how the reopening could affect several groups:

Federal workers

They’ll get their back pay but not it’s not clear how fast. The White House Friday tweeted that it would be “in the coming days.”

Friday was the second payday for most workers since the shutdown began.

With bills to pay and creditors – potentially – breathing down their necks, workers are anxious to see money in their bank accounts.

The good news is they will be treated as if they had never been forced to miss work, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. They’ll accrue sick time and vacations days as if they had been working all along, and their pension calculation will assume they were on the job without interruption.

If they applied for unemployment and started receiving benefits, they’ll have to repay what they received in full.

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Due to staffing shortages related to the partial government shutdown, major airports in the Northeast are experiencing delays. Veuer’s Justin Kircher has more.
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Airport travelers

With the government reopen, security checkpoint wait times, especially in high-volume airports such as those in Atlanta and the Baltimore-Washington region, should ease quickly.

Financial hardship has prompted “sickouts” by TSA workers who process airport checkpoints. And “staffing” issues among air traffic controllers who manage the nation’s airspace were blamed for flight delays at several airports in the Northeast.

Related: FBI Director Christopher Wray: Government shutdown ‘mind-boggling’ and ‘short-sighted’

Related: Today should be payday for hundreds of thousands of government workers. But the shutdown means they’re not getting paid

Roughly 800,000 federal workers were affected by the shutdown. Of those, about 50,000 are airport security workers, who have been working despite not getting paid because they are considered “essential.” TSA recently acknowledged that some airports have experienced long security lines because of staffing shortages. 

“While national average wait times are within normal TSA times of 30 minutes for standard lanes and 10 minutes for TSA Precheck, some airports experienced longer than usual wait times,” the TSA said in a statement.

National park visitors

Some parks never officially closed (though they shuttered their visitor centers) but about a third did, mostly historic sites such as Fort McHenry in Baltimore.

Some won’t be open right away due to cleanup of trash, graffiti and human waste that were left on their grounds. Others may have limited access for a while due to natural causes such as snow-covered roads that have to be plowed.

Kristen Brengel, a lobbyist for the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy organization, said she believes the administration will do its best to reopen parks and sites quickly.

“The Park Service is an agency that wants to be open to the public,” she said. “So if there are roads that have been covered in snow for a month now, the Park Service may need a bulldozer instead of a plow to open. It kinds of depends on the situation as to whether or not a park can be open instantly.”

Small business owners

The reopening means the federal government can continue helping small businesses: the Small Business Administration can once again process loan requests, mom-and-pop stores near national parks can resume selling goods and services to visitors, and small businesses with federal contracts for a broad range of services can start getting paid again.

Even if the restart is quick, it might be too late for some, said John Arensmeyer, CEO and founder of Small Business Majority.   

“It’s an inescapable fact that the partial government shutdown inflicted substantial damage on America’s small firms,” he said. “Since most small firms have little if any financial safety net, a small dip in earnings can be an existential blow and many small firms will not recover anytime soon from the losses they incurred over the past month.

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Chris George, a federal employee furloughed from his job as a forestry technician supervisor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, takes off his boots at his home adorned with an American flag after spending the day working as a handyman Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019, in Hemet, Calif. “I have a lot of pride, so asking for help is difficult for me. It’s very difficult for me because I’m always the one giving back or putting myself before anybody else,” said George. “Now, here I am in the situation where I’m the one that is in need.” Jae C. Hong, AP

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Amy McElroy, left, and Lt. j.g. Sean Hill, who both missed a paycheck a day earlier during the partial government shutdown, talk about the stacks of fishing fleet inspections backing-up in the marine inspection office at Sector Puget Sound base, Jan. 16, 2019, in Seattle. The four civilian employees who normally handle the paperwork have been furloughed, leaving it to Hill to complete, along with his other duties. The Coast Guard is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is unfunded during the shutdown, now in its fourth week. Elaine Thompson, AP

A TSA officer closes the entrance of the Miami International Airport’s Terminal G, during the ongoing the government shutdown, in Miami on Jan. 12,  2019. The current partial shutdown of the US federal government has become the longest in US history, on Jan. 12, surpassing the previous 21-day shutdown of 1995-1996. Over 800,000 federal employees are impacted by the shutdown, with around 400,000 furloughed and being paid later and the rest deemed ‘essential’, who must work without pay, though retroactive pay is expected, with Jan. 11 marking the first missed paycheck. CRISTOBAL HERRERA, EPA-EFE

Jack Lyons, a contractor working on massive rocket test stands for NASA, stands in his workshop while spending the furlough on his small side business making props for marching bands, in Madison, Ala., Jan. 8, 2019. “They’re trying to use people as bargaining chips, and it just isn’t right,” Lyons said. Unlike civil service workers who expect to eventually get back pay, Lyons doesn’t know if he’ll ever see a dollar from the shutdown period. David Goldman, AP

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