Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) alongside 33 of his Democratic Senate colleagues, urged the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to direct federal agencies to work with contractors to provide back pay to compensate low- and middle-income contractor employees for the wages they have lost during the shutdown.
“Contract workers and their families should not suffer the consequences of a shutdown that they did not cause,” The Senators wrote to the OMB Acting Director. “Low-wage service contract workers perform jobs that are absolutely vital to the government, such as food service, security, and custodial work. Many of these workers live paycheck-to-paycheck, and cannot afford to pay their rent and other bills if the shutdown continues.”
Under their existing authority, Senators argued, federal contracting officers should use provisions that allow them to modify the terms of the contract to work with contractors to provide back pay for employees who lost wages as a result of the government shutdown.
Alongside Casey, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and 32 Democratic Senators led this effort.
The text of the letter is available here.
###
