Senate Democrats introduce bill to pay back furloughed contract workers
Daily Kos
January 17, 2019
For the 800,000 federal employees who have been furloughed by the partial government shutdown, life is pretty shitty right now, as they try to figure out how to make ends meet without their paychecks.
They at least have the ability to go to creditors and tell them that once the shutdown is over, they'll get their back pay and will be able to get caught up.
More than a million contractors who work for the federal government don't have that luxury, since they weren't included in a bill to provide back pay passed by Congress.
Senate Democrats are trying to remedy that, with legislation sponsored by Sens. Tina Smith of Minnesota, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin of Maryland, and Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia.
"This bill is about helping a group of people who are often invisible - people who work in the cafeterias, who clean offices after everyone else goes home, security guards who keep our building safe overnight," said Senator Smith in a statement announcing the legislation.
"These low and mid-range federal contract workers have had to go without pay for weeks now, and in past shutdowns, haven't received back pay.
That's wrong, and that's what my bill is trying to fix."
Read more:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/1/17/1827125/Senate-Democrats-introduce-bill-to-pay-back-
