ICE agents will receive ‘super checks’ amid government shutdown

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed to Reuters that Customs and Border Protection border patrol agents, ICE deportation officers, Secret Service special agents, and TSA flight controllers will continue to be paid during the ongoing shutdown. luck.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Shown on social media Last week, those employees would receive “premium checks” by Wednesday covering their next pay period, plus lost wages from the first few days of the shutdown, and applicable overtime pay.

Not all essential workers have been so fortunate. Among the hundreds of thousands of government employees who are not receiving their salaries are air traffic controllers, who are considered essential employees. Many Work 60 hours, six days a weekand some take on second “gig jobs,” such as serving in restaurants or driving for Uber or… DoorDashAccording to Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

“Somehow thinking we can live with ‘You’ll get your money in the end’ ‘Don’t pay the creditors, don’t pay the mortgage, don’t pay the gas, don’t pay the food bill,'” Daniels said. luck Earlier this week. “Nobody takes out IOUs, and air traffic controllers have to feel that pressure, too.”

Decisions about who gets paid and who doesn’t during a government shutdown depend on department staff sorting employees into essential and non-essential groups, as well as salary allocations that may or may not be affected by the outgoing congressional budget.

But this personnel selection process is completely arbitrary and subjective, highlighting the failure of government shutdowns, which are ultimately more costly than keeping the government running, according to Linda Bilmes, a public finance expert and senior lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. EY-Parthenon Chief Economist Gregory Daco estimated Every week the government is shut down, it will translate into a $7 billion economic hit and a 0.1% decline in US GDP growth, partly due to delayed purchases of goods and pressure on demand.

“There is this overall flaw in the whole process,” Bilmes said. luck. “Every time you get into one of these situations — which has been on average four times a year for the last four to five years — there is arbitrariness in who ends up getting paid for their work, who ends up on work, and who ends up being furloughed.”

“Arbitrariness is almost inherent in this dysfunction, which is a feature as well as a bug,” she added.

A “dysfunctional” system.

There were 20 governments.”Funding gaps“In the past fifty years, After the Congressional Budget Reform Act of 1974 In response to former President Richard Nixon Booking Attempts on funds already appropriated by Congress. While the president had significant control over the budget for much of the twentieth century, the 1974 reform placed more power in the hands of Congress.

As a result of a series of finance and appropriations committees that oversee government budgets, the process of allocating and approving funds has become complex, Bilmes said. For example, the Department of Veterans Affairs has a two-year budget, meaning its funding does not lapse when Congress fails to pass an appropriations bill. Conversely, the Patent and Trademark Office is funded not by funds appropriated by Congress, but by patent fees, and employee salaries are similarly unaffected by the shutdown.

But even furloughing employees during a shutdown or giving them temporary unpaid leave can end up costing more than just continuing to pay them, Bilmes noted. Government contractors are typically furloughed, but unlike many other federal employees, they are Unguaranteed – and in many cases, unpaid – late payment. These contractors are aware of a potential interruption in income due to recurring closures and, as a result, are renewing their contracts.

Bilmes posited that in order to solve the arbitrary disparities in payment during lockdowns, there had to be a solution Automatic decisionscreating an automatic extension of the previous budget. She added that this would not be ideal because it could lead to less urgent conversations about planning and strategy and addressing long-term issues that accompany new budget discussions. The alternative is for the entire government to operate on a two-year budget to avoid the quarterly stop-and-go that has become the current precedent.

Otherwise, Bilmes acknowledged, the process does not serve the American people.

“From my perspective, it’s like spending money shooting ourselves in the foot and deciding which foot we want to shoot first,” she said.