Norton’s Statement at Press Conference to Highlight Impact of Government Shutdown on Federal Employees

“I have two important groups to attend to – D.C. and federal employees. The D.C. local government here also delivers services directly into the homes and hands of our residents. But many of those local services depend upon the federal employees who are off the job today. Mayor Gray has taken steps to keep the D.C. government open, but the contingency funds he is using could run out in a couple of weeks. If federal workers should not be punished because Congress did not do its job, surely a shutdown of the District of Columbia would have punitive effects no one can condone. No Republican or Democrat desires the unintended effect of shutting down the local government only because D.C.’s local balanced budget has not cleared the Congress. Yet, the city government is holding shutdown at bay only because of Mayor Gray’s temporary solution. I thank the 120 members who have signed on to my letter urging congressional leaders to pass legislation to keep the District government open during the federal shutdown.

“Both federal and D.C. employees are innocent bystanders to a congressional crisis. They deserve to be at least partially rescued from the Congress who brought it on. We must quickly approve the bipartisan Moran-Wolfe bill, which I have cosponsored, to retroactively pay furloughed federal employees, who rely on their pay checks to pay their bills and feed their families.”

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