Photo courtesy of the Office of the U.S. Representative Ayanna PressleyU.S. Representative and Dorchester native Ayanna Pressley met today with workers and families in the Massachusetts 7th Congressional District about the impact of the federal government shutdown that ended after 35 days on January 25th, 2019.
The shutdown affected 800,000 federal government employees around the country, many of them in Massachusetts, who didn’t get pay and now may face financial problems.
“We cannot forget our contract service workers, janitors, cafeteria workers & security guards. They deserve back pay too,” Congresswoman Pressley said on Twitter, asking for support for a bill to help low-wage service workers impacted by the shutdown.
On January 17th, Pressley and Congress colleagues introduced legislation to ensure back pay for “thousands” of low-wage contract service employees whose “paychecks and livelihoods have been held hostage” during the government shutdown.
The Fair Compensation for Low-Wage Contractor Employees Act is a bicameral proposal that aims to provide relief for federal contract service workers, including food service, janitorial and security workers, “who oftentimes receive low wages and live paycheck to paycheck,” said Pressley office.
The United States federal government shutdown of 2018–2019, originated by President Donald Trump, was the longest U.S. government shutdown in history, lasting from midnight on December 22, 2018, until January 25, 2019. The shutdown comes over Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion in federal funds for a U.S.–Mexico border wall.
On January 25, 2019, Trump agreed to endorse a bill to reopen the government for three weeks, to allow for negotiations to take place to approve an appropriations bill that both parties could agree upon.
