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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFBI Field Offices Collect Food Donations for Unpaid Employees
Thomas OConnor, the FBI special agent who is volunteer president of the FBI Agents Association, said on Tuesday that its not normal for him to be sitting in front of news cameras.
But nor is it normal for chunks of the government to be shut down so that the groups nearly 14,000 members, among others, are not collecting paychecks.
So the association took the rare step of collecting anonymous, volunteer statements from special agents nationwide documenting the harms that the funding freeze have inflicted on investigations, travel, training, payments to confidential sources and employee benefits.
This Friday will mean more than 30 days without pay, which is not sustainable, OConnor told reporters. Its sad and disgusting that the bureaus law enforcement professionals have been let down by our elected officials. He described how his wifealso a special agent and his bossworked with her Virginia book club to collect and deliver a truckload of food to FBI family at a field office, which is happening all across the country. I never thought I would say this about the federal government, OConnor said.
The majority of FBI employees remain on the job, though without pay. And following a petition presented on Jan. 10 to the White House and congressional leaders demanding immediate funding for the bureau, the groups new reporttitled Voices from the Field: FBI Agent Accounts of the Real Consequences of the Government Shutdownwill go to all lawmakers.
It quotes regional agents lamenting in detail that OConnor called vivid and troubling of how, for example, local crime victims working with the FBI do not receive the usual counseling. Witnesses planned for court proceedings are not getting the fees and per diems, though the criminal trials will go forward, OConnor said. And in one division, we dont have a single Spanish-speaking staffer available, so for a violent crime case, in which 13 from the infamous MS-13 gang have been indicted, the FBI has to interview using a three-way phone connection.
As they did in the groups petition, the leaders of the 14,000-member association stressed that the shutdown and absent paychecks put agents security clearances at risk. Every family in the FBI has mortgages, car payments and bills at the end of the monthtry doing that without a paycheck, OConnor said. Its especially tough on the newer employees, he said.
The skipped paydays also harm recruiting and shrink hiring pools to sub-par candidates, he said. In fact, members of the most recent graduating class from the FBIs training academy at Quantico, Va., since Dec. 21 have not received paychecks, after having left other jobs and
their families at home.
Vision and dental health benefits are now frozen because of furloughed support staff, OConnor added, and retirees, some of whom spent 20 years risking their lives for the government face delays in their first retirement checkswith no ability to use the typical leftover annual leave as paid days during the shutdown. He declined to answer questions about the politics of the shutdown, citing the groups nonpartisan mission and his stance of speaking as a volunteer, not on behalf of the bureau.
https://www.govexec.com/management/2019/01/fbi-field-offices-collect-food-donations-unpaid-employees/154337/?oref=river
Desert grandma
(804 posts)In another post, I suggested that all federal workers should be allowed to borrow against or withdraw retirement funds without penalty. The money could be replaced once workers receive back pay, but at least until then, they would be able to buy food! Federal retirements are funded in cash and I believe they are handled by a financial institution. Democrats should offer this bill which would pass the House for sure, and then let the Senate decide what they will do. At lease federal workers will know who is REALLY on their side.