Shutdown Inflicts Economic Harm in Every Community

Home Media Center News Releases

WASHINGTON-Every community in America will feel the harsh economic impact of a government shutdown when thousands of their neighbors start missing paychecks and stop spending money.

Starting today, frontline federal employees across the country will be locked out of work or required to stay on the job without any guarantee that their next paycheck will arrive on time.

"Anyone who thinks a shutdown only hurts Washington D.C. or just federal employees is flat-out wrong," said NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald. "Disrupting government services and stalling the government payroll is a gut punch to working families everywhere."

According to the latest data from the U.S. Census as reported by the Congressional Research Service, at least 3,300 civilian federal employees live in every congressional district. Most districts have more than 5,000 civilian federal employees, and several states have more than 100,000. The figures, gathered by the American Community Survey, include employees from dozens of federal agencies, including civilian employees at the Department of Defense, though the numbers do not include military servicemembers who could also be impacted.

Every government shutdown is a political failure, but this one is already worse than most, Greenwald said.

"Agency managers did not communicate their shutdown contingency plans with their employees in a timely way, causing upheaval in federal offices around the country as employees wait to find out if they are required to work or not," Greenwald said.

"Our members are taxpayers, just like everyone else, and they want to do the jobs they were hired to do: researching life-saving medicines, safeguarding our food supply, protecting our environment, managing our public lands and parks, helping taxpayers file their returns, making sure financial institutions are sound, and securing the nation's ports, just to name a few," Greenwald said. "You can bet our members will continue urging their members of Congress to resolve the funding stalemate and reach a bipartisan agreement that provides agencies with the funding they need to meet the needs of the American people."

NTEU represents employees in 38 federal agencies and offices.