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Season 4, Episode 188

Second threat of government shutdown has AFGE seeking assistance

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Guest Name:


Arnold Scott

Guest Website:


https://www.afge.org/ 

Guest Social Media:


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Supportive Documents:


District 6 President of the American Federation of Government Employees, Arnold Scott, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss a possible government shutdown at the end of September. Scott discussed the shutdown costs and the AFGE’s plan to get federal workers help.

After one major battle in 2023, where the United States government narrowly avoided a government shutdown, there is a possibility of repeating the fight this fall. A deal was brokered in Congress earlier in 2023 that established guidelines for the funding of the government. However, this agreement was dissolved shortly after the debt ceiling was raised by the House majority. Now a new deadline is approaching at the end of September. 

If Congress fails to act and the federal government must shut down, there would be a cost of approximately $5 billion per week that would not be paid to workers and, in turn, not reenter the economy. The costs of the shutdown would be far worse than the U.S. experienced during the 2019 35-day shutdown. Scott is concerned that Congress isn’t taking the government's funding seriously and won’t realize the possible economic impact until it’s too late. If they don’t find a way to fully fund the government’s operations, the results could devastate the United States economy, he said.

The AFGE is working on a plan to help support federal workers for the last few weeks. Included in this plan is a “Stop the Shutdown” webpage asking people to reach out to their local government officials. AFGE also provides templates for letters to be sent to the editors of area news outlets and Congress. According to Scott, they have targeted several members of Congress with letters to ask for their support to get funding and avoid the shutdown.

For more information on AFGE, please press play above.


America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

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