US government agencies that had largely shuttered operations for five weeks during a budget standoff on Saturday said they were moving swiftly to resume operations and compensate employees for missed paychecks.
The White House held a conference call with Cabinet department financial officers late on Friday to discuss the resumption of government operations, while agencies began to grapple with a backlog of management and policy issues.
The partial government shutdown — at 35 days the longest in US history — led to about 800,000 federal workers going unpaid, including 380,000 furloughed workers.
Photo: AFP
President Donald Trump on Friday signed a measure to fund the government for three weeks as congressional negotiators try to hammer out a bill to fund the federal government through Sept. 30.
Trump had demanded US$5.7 billion in funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border, but Democratic legislators refused to include the money.
The White House Office of Management and Budget’s acting chief, Russell Vought, told agencies in a memo to reopen “in a prompt and orderly manner.”
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb on Saturday wrote on Twitter that the agency would send back pay to staffers no later than Thursday.
Gottlieb told employees the FDA would hold an all-hands meeting tomorrow.
“There will be impacts from this prolonged lapse in funding,” he wrote. “But this agency has always faced challenge.”
The US Coast Guard told personnel it was “working through the weekend to process your pay as quickly as possible” and said back pay should be received by Thursday.
Federal workers are owed about US$6 billion in back pay, according to a study released last week.
It will take agencies days to dig out from weeks of unread e-mails and deal with other logistical issues like expired e-mail passwords or ID badges, agency officials said.
Furloughed workers were told not to read e-mails or answer phone calls while off duty.
NASA asked employees for “patience and attention, especially during the first 48 hours,” noting that the vast majority of employees’ laptops and smartphones have been inactive for more than a month and have not had “critical, regularly scheduled maintenance.”
During the shutdown, some US government agencies did not complete contracts for grants, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration stopped reviewing and making public new auto safety recalls, and the Federal Aviation Administration stopped certifying some new aircraft and routes.
The Smithsonian Institution said museums in Washington and the National Zoo would reopen tomorrow.
In Philadelphia, Independence National Historical Park — which includes a center that houses the Liberty Bell —- reopened on Saturday.
Other sites were reopening on Sunday, including Ford’s Theatre in Washington.
US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton on Saturday said in a statement that the agency was “continuing to assess how to most effectively transition to normal operations.”
He said some SEC units, including those devoted to corporate finance, trading and markets, and investment management and the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, “will be publishing statements in the coming days regarding their transition plans.”
The SEC has been unable to approve initial public offerings during the shutdown, and some analysts had suggested the issue could delay IPOs this year.
It will take the Federal Register, which publishes government regulatory actions, weeks to catch up with the backlog of documents, which will delay the start of public comments on some proposals.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese