The Internal Revenue Service announced on Wednesday it would place about half of its employees on unpaid leave due to the government shutdown.
The news set off a flurry of confusion at one of the largest IRS processing centers in the country, located in Ogden, with employees uncertain about who had been furloughed.
Workers were also surprised to learn that unlike past government shutdowns, the Trump administration would not guarantee automatic compensation for the forced time off.
“This one feels different,” said Robert Lawrence, a 20-year veteran at the Ogden IRS facility who was furloughed. “It’s especially stressful this time when the back pay is uncertain.”
On Tuesday, the Deseret News reported the White House had prepared a memo saying it would not interpret the ‘’Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019″ to ensure compensation after a shutdown.
This could have wide-ranging implications for Utah’s roughly 40,000 workers employed by the federal government, including the 20,000 at Hill Air Force Base and 7,500 at the IRS centers in Ogden.
Shutdown impacts Utah employees
Hill Air Force Base issued a statement last week saying that essential operations will continue but that much of the civilian workforce will be furloughed.
Since a partial shutdown began on Oct. 1, an estimated 750,000 federal workers have been sent home without the assurance of payment — and under the threat of mass layoffs.
As the president of the local IRS union chapter, which has 4,000 members, Lawrence said he is hearing a chorus of concern from employees who he said often earn between $15-$18 per hour.
The Department of Workforce Services typically has a two-week delay in collecting claims data, but Lawrence said he has already received many requests about how to apply for unemployment insurance.
In addition to fielding questions from his union members, Lawrence said news of his furlough has complicated his personal finances as he looks to make a deposit on a new home he is renting.
But Lawrence said IRS employees are not interested in the partisan blame-game consuming Washington, D.C. The failure to arrive at a budget agreement is an indictment of Congress as a whole, he said.
“People can decide which side of Congress they want to blame it on, but we don’t care. We’re not getting paid, and this is everybody’s fault in Congress,” Lawrence said.
Why is there a shutdown?
On Thursday, Senate Democrats rejected Republicans’ short-term funding extension for the seventh straight time despite an offer from Senate leadership to vote on Democrats’ main sticking point.
For the past nine days, GOP lawmakers have pushed for a clean extension of federal funding but Democrats have refused, saying that a permanent renewal of Affordable Care Act tax subsidies must be included.
State Sen. Ann Millner, R-Ogden, who represents the area encompassing an IRS center and Hill Air Force Base, said the shutdown is having “real consequences for families in my district.”
“This moment calls for leadership and a clear path forward,” Millner said in a statement to the Deseret News. “Reopening the government is the first step toward restoring trust and essential services to the American people.”
In statements to the Deseret News, Utah’s congressional delegation largely pointed the finger at their Democratic colleagues for the budget impasse impacting voters in their districts.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee said the “Schumer Shutdown” is caused by Democrats who “want to take your money and use it to give health care to illegal aliens.” Democrats have denied charges that illegal immigrants would receive subsidized health care under their proposal, but Republicans say the Democratic plan would eliminate verification for Medicaid services.
The office of Rep. Blake Moore, who represents the IRS center and Hill Air Force Base in the 1st Congressional District, said they have received “many calls” from federal employees concerned about missing a paycheck.
“The impacts of this shutdown are real for hardworking Utahns,” a spokesperson for Moore said. “It’s disheartening that Senate Democrats continue to play politics when they’ve already voted for this exact same level of funding numerous times.”
Rep. Celeste Maloy, of Utah’s 2nd District, said the government shutdown will be reversed as soon as Democrats approve “our clean continuing resolution — no partisan riders, no gimmicks.”
Rep. Burgess Owens, of Utah’s 4th District, said Democrats should “put aside the political games” to approve a continuing resolution like they did 13 times under the Biden administration.
What will a shutdown cost?
The office of Sen. John Curtis recognized the shutdown represented “Washington’s failure to perform its most basic duty: keeping the government open and functioning.”
“Utah’s federal employees are once again caught in the crossfire of a deeply broken process,” a Curtis spokesperson said. “Congress’ current process, which relies on shutdown threats and last-minute brinkmanship, would be unrecognizable to any responsible household or business.”
Lawrence has grown tired of the political dynamics that lead to a near-shutdown every 12 months, he said. He hopes Utah’s congressional delegation can help strike a deal with Democrats because it is ultimately the taxpayers who suffer from a shutdown.
“Every day that the IRS is shut down, it means hundreds of millions of dollars in overtime alone in Ogden,” Lawrence said. “It means people aren’t going to get their tax returns on time.”
An analysis of the last federal shutdown in 2019 by the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the record 35-day shutdown decreased the country’s economic output by $3 billion.
Another Congressional Budget Office report found the 2013 shutdown cost the government an estimated $2–$3 billion in lost productivity, and increased the cost of government contracts.
Federal assistance programs like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, are also rapidly running out of funds.
A spokesperson for the Utah Senate said legislative leadership and the governor’s office are “closely monitoring the situation” but that the state “is not equipped to fund federal programs for weeks or months.”
“The longer this federal shutdown continues, the more severe and widespread the consequences will become,” the spokesperson said. “Families, seniors and vulnerable communities will bear the brunt and unnecessary hardship of Congress’s inaction and that is unacceptable.”
