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"Three Weeks Doesn't Cut It," Rep. DeFazio Hears From Federal Employees

By Tiffany Eckert
Published January 25, 2019 at 5:11 PM PST
U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio in his Eugene office at the Wayne Morse Federal Courthouse. He received a congressional memo Friday saying the stop gap funding measure would only require a voice vote so he would not have to fly to D.C. tonight.
Tiffany Eckert
U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio in his Eugene office at the Wayne Morse Federal Courthouse. He received a congressional memo Friday saying the stop gap funding measure would only require a voice vote so he would not have to fly to D.C. tonight.

The White House announced a short-term deal to re-open the government by Friday evening. In Eugene, Oregon鈥檚 U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio met with scores of federal employees who have been working without pay for over a month. KLCC鈥檚 Tiffany Eckert reports.

The stop-gap funding measure would re-open the government through February 15 th. After hearing this news, 60 Federal employees including Coast Guard, Transportation Safety and Air Traffic Control told Congressman DeFazio what they thought.

鈥淭hey said 3 weeks doesn鈥檛 cut it. There were people there who were supervisory level. They said, 鈥榳e鈥檙e trying to hire people into the agency. How are we gonna hire people if 3 weeks from today  they might not be getting a paycheck?鈥欌��

U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio in his Eugene office at the Wayne Morse Federal Courthouse. He received a congressional memo Friday saying the stop gap funding measure would only require a voice vote so he would not have to fly to D.C. tonight.
Credit Tiffany Eckert
U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio in his Eugene office at the Wayne Morse Federal Courthouse. He received a congressional memo Friday saying the stop gap funding measure would only require a voice vote so he would not have to fly to D.C. tonight.

Defazio says many of the federal employees described financial hardships during the shutdown. He says they asked him to figure out how to keep this from happening again.

鈥淲e need to go to a two-year budget cycle and then we have to have a provision in there that says should Congress and the president not agree on a budget, operations will continue at the existing level.鈥�

DeFazio says part of the short term deal includes talks on Homeland Security funding.

Copyright 2019

Tiffany Eckert
Tiffany Eckert is a reporter for KLCC, the NPR member station in Eugene, Oregon. Her reporting comes to JPR through the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
See stories by Tiffany Eckert
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