Arkansas government officials outlined Wednesday (Oct. 1) a list of affected departments and employees affected by the federal government shutdown with the state’s military department seeing the largest cuts.
Chris Price, chief of communications for the Arkansas Department of Shared Administrative Services, said there are 22,912 state employees of which an estimated 12,421 positions have some form of federal funding. Some of those jobs are 100% federally funding and some are partially federally funded.
“Agencies must furlough their ‘non-excepted’ employees, however programs that have funding in place may continue to operate as long as the funding remains,” said Price. “Once furloughed, employees will not work or be paid until they are recalled when the shutdown ends. Excepted employees, those who protect life and property, will stay on the job but will not be paid until after the shutdown ends,” said Price.
Price said in 2019, Congress passed a bill requiring federal employees to receive retroactive pay once government operations resume. While employees will eventually get paid, they will not receive pay for the duration of the shutdown.
As of Wednesday morning, there were 264 state employees immediately impacted by furloughs from the government shutdown. They included the following breakdown by agency:
- Department of Finance and Administration – 14
- Department of Health – 23
- Department of Human Services – 41
- Department of Military – 180
- Department of Public Safety – 6
Earlier this week, Gov. Sarah Sanders issued a memo to her cabinet secretaries outlining the criteria for determining which programs must be suspended and which employees will be furloughed. The criteria includes:
– If a program or employee has been identified by the federal government as being necessary to protect public health, safety, or welfare, and the federal government has provided documentation guaranteeing funding during the shutdown, the program and federally funded employment may continue uninterrupted by the shutdown.
– If an agency has sufficient federal funding and authorization from current or previous federal grants to fund a program or position, it may do so as long as funding remains available.
– In all other cases, programs and employment that are wholly or partially dependent on federal funding will be suspended, effective Wednesday, Oct. 1, for the duration of the shutdown. The federal government will not allow us to make any exceptions unless the protection of public health, safety, and welfare would be compromised.
In an interview with Talk Business & Politics on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro, said D.C. Democrats and their pitch to bargain with extending health insurance premium subsidies shouldn’t be part of the equation.
“The CR [continuing resolution] is not a policy vehicle. It’s a continuing resolution to keep the government funded. It is not about changing policy, implementing policy, wedging new policy initiatives in there, none of those things,” he said.
Crawford expects more Democrats to defect from their caucus as the week wears on and vote for the “clean” CR, which is just an extension of current funding levels.
“It’s really pretty simple. I think when Senator [Chuck] Schumer comes to the realization that he can’t win on this thing, and I think that’s probably going to come maybe as early as Friday. We’re already seeing some Senate Democrats that have come to the realization that it’s not in anybody’s interest to shut the government down,” said Crawford.
Democrat leaders have opposed the CR in an effort to renew an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits. They also argue that unlike previous CR discussions, Democrats in the U.S. House were not allowed to participate in negotiations. They also say the CR is not the usual “clean” CR and is part of the Trump administration’s “weaponization” of the budget process in which funds previously approved by Congress are not spent or are redirected to other purposes.