Dear
NTEU Members,
Welcome
back to work!
As
you know, the House and Senate approved legislation that would end the
government shutdown by funding federal agencies at current levels through Jan.
15, 2014, and provide back pay for furloughed federal workers. The legislation
would also immediately lift the debt ceiling until Feb. 7, 2014.
In
addition to ending the shutdown and raising the debt ceiling, the legislation
would create a bicameral conference committee charged with negotiating a final
budget agreement for FY ‘14 by Dec. 13, 2013, so that Congress would have
sufficient time to consider and pass the agreement before funding runs out on
January 15.
NTEU
fought hard to end the government shutdown and we are very pleased that
Congress has reached an agreement to provide back pay for furloughed federal
workers and meet our nation’s financial obligations. NTEU will continue
to work with our supporters in the House and Senate to ensure any final FY ’14
agreement provides federal agencies with sufficient resources to meet their
missions, and ends sequestration once and for all.
Many
Federal employees have experienced difficulties paying their bills during the
shutdown. On behalf of our members, I wrote to Administrator Gina
McCarthy requesting that EPA provides its employees with a letter to creditors,
similar to the one HHS has provided to their employees, to explain the impact
of the government-wide shutdown and to assure them that this is a temporary
situation beyond our employees’control and that they will be returned to pay
status as soon as possible. Such a letter would be very helpful to our
employees in dealing with financial problems that may arise due to the
government shutdown and furlough.
Also,
OPM has prepared sample letters to creditors, mortgage companies and landlords
for use by employees that need to make payment arrangements due to the lapse of
appropriations. Please see the attached file. OPM provided these
sample letters to agency chief human capital officers and HR directors to make
them available to employees. These letters are also available on OPM’s
webpage at:
Finally,
I would like to thank those of you who participated in the rallies in front of
the House and the Senate demanding to end the government shutdown and to
provide back pay for furloughed federal workers.
Thank
you for supporting NTEU.
Amer
Al-Mudallal, President
NTEU
Chapter 280
UPDATE: Management provided the requested letter. It is available on the EPA intranet "shutdown" page (accessible to employees). If you have any difficultly accessing the letter, please contact Amer or any member of the Executive Board for assistance.
UPDATE: Management provided the requested letter. It is available on the EPA intranet "shutdown" page (accessible to employees). If you have any difficultly accessing the letter, please contact Amer or any member of the Executive Board for assistance.
