Virginia Dems rush to support federal workers during government shutdown

Virginia’s economy was already under pressure from the Trump administration’s cuts to federal funding and a sluggish labor market. The uncertainty of a government shutdown pausing paychecks for hundreds of thousands of federal workers won’t help.

Virginia’s hundreds of thousands of federal employees entered their second day of the government shutdown on Thursday as Republicans in Washington hold firm on their refusal to pass a spending bill that keeps health care affordable for millions of Americans and the Trump administration threatens to fire even more government workers.

“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” President Donald Trump posted on social media Thursday morning. 

READ MORE: Project 2025 threatens thousands of Virginia workers

Virginia Democrats meanwhile are urging Trump and Republicans to back spending legislation that would extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies and prevent the cost of health care from doubling for more than 20 million Americans enrolled in ACA health plans who benefit from the subsidies. 

The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) estimates that 47,000 Virginians would become uninsured once ACA enhanced premium tax credits expire at the end of the year. 

Republicans refused to extend these tax credits in their massive tax and spending legislation that slashed Medicaid and food stamps for the poor to help pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. The legislation has already been blamed for the closure of three rural clinics in Virginia, and state lawmakers are grappling with how to make up for the massive federal funding shortfalls. 

“Republicans’ health care mess will cost lives, jack up costs, and force rural clinics to close—clinics rural communities need to attract economic development projects,” US Sen. Tim Kaine said on social media on Thursday. “Virginia’s health and economy depend on a bipartisan path to reopen the government and fix those problems.”

With Republicans refusing to budge in Washington, businesses, organizations, and officials across Virginia rushed to share resources for the state’s more than 300,000 federal employees.

US Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, a Northern Virginia Democrat, is holding a town hall on Saturday in Sterling to discuss the shutdown. Subramanyam, like other Virginia Democrats, has posted online resources for federal workers that answer frequently asked questions and help connect them with their union. 

Subramanyam represents tens of thousands of federal workers and contractors, not to mention businesses and households the shutdown could harm, too. In a statement to Dogwood, he said he wanted to hear about their concerns and offer his support. 

“The Trump Administration and House Republicans refuse to negotiate and seem to relish a shutdown, but I am doing everything I can to end this shutdown and stand up for Virginians reeling from this Administration’s policies,” Subramanyam. 

Virginia Democrats are also backing legislation to support furloughed federal workers and are pushing back on Trump administration rhetoric about deeper cuts to the federal workforce. 

Trump said he was meeting with administration officials on Thursday for what he called an “unprecedented opportunity” to consider recommendations for cuts and firings across federal agencies, according to The Hill. 

Kaine has introduced legislation aimed at letting federal employees tap into retirement savings without penalty during the shutdown. And US Rep. James Walkinshaw of Virginia’s 11th congressional district penned an op-ed in MSNBC published on Tuesday arguing that federal law prevents the Trump administration from mass firings during a shutdown. 

“Federal employees are not political hostages,” Walkinshaw wrote. “They are the backbone of our nation’s safety and prosperity.”

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that senior federal officials feel similar to Walkinshaw that mass firings during a shutdown would be subject to legal challenges. 

A shutdown of a few days would have a smaller and less noticeable impact on Virginia’s broader economy. But given Republican intransigence and Trump’s pugnacious attitude, it’s possible the shutdown could drag on longer and cause broader economic pain. 

The last government shutdown, which occurred during Trump’s first administration and spanned 35 days from 2018 to 2019, cost the D.C. region $1.6 billion in the short term, though some of that likely was recovered when federal employees got their back pay, according to The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis. 

During a government shutdown, federal workers don’t get paid, and those deemed essential, like members of the military or air traffic controllers, work without pay. These workers should be made whole once the government is funded and re-opens. But the threat of Trump’s mass firings has added another level of uncertainty for an already embattled workforce.

A missed paycheck will mean more for federal workers not making as much money as their peers. 

About half of all federal workers make between $50,000 and $109,999 a year, according to a January report by the Pew Research Center, and one in four earn under $70,000, meaning delayed paychecks could strain their household budgets as they pay their mortgages, rent, and other bills. 

And the region’s many federal contractors don’t have the benefit of guaranteed back pay. 

As Virginia waits to see just how bad things will get because of the current shutdown, some have already felt the pinch. An electrician in Virginia Beach posted on social media that most of their business comes from the military or government-adjacent customers, and “business is screeching to a slow halt and has been since January.” 

“When federal paychecks stop flowing, it kills small businesses,” they posted.