As federal employees around Washington and across the country try to figure out whether they’ll be deemed “essential” if the government shuts down Friday night, aides to Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) now know for certain — they’ll be working.
Technically, only congressional employees deemed vital to lawmakers’ performing their constitutional responsibilities are supposed to stay on duty during a shutdown, with the rest sent home without pay. But members of Congress — and delegates — have wide lattitude in determining which of their staffers are essential, and Norton informed her aides Thursday that all of them deserve that label.
“The burden and the responsibilities of the staff that represent the District of Columbia are always greater than for other districts,” Norton said in a press release. “We represent a district that has no senators and only one member of Congress. With our local government also facing a shutdown, we cannot abandon our constituents, who may need us now more than ever. We hope that federal employees who have been deemed essential will be paid retroactively, although there is certainly no guarantee.”
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