Federal employees facing missing check Friday. Major media reported on the situation for federal employees who are facing a coming payday in which they may not be paid. NBC Nightly News (1/9, story 5, 1:30, Holt, 8.42M) reported, “For millions of Americans, the shutdown is far more than a political fight in Washington.” NBC (Costello) added, “Among those working without pay: the very Secret Service agents protecting the President, US Customs and Border Patrol, marshals, ATF, DEA, most NASA employees, 14,000 air traffic controllers, 51,000 TSA officers. All should receive back pay once the government reopens, though that could be awhile.” NBC also reported “hundreds of thousands of FDA food inspectors” are on furlough, while “a support network is recommending garage sales for furloughed members of the Coast Guard.” NBC added that according to the TSA union, “some officers are starting to quit as they’re unlikely to be paid on Friday.”
The CBS Evening News (1/9, story 2, 2:05, Glor, 6.18M) reported, “So many workers could be forced to live off savings and what’s left from their last paycheck.” CBS (Werner) featured a federal corrections officer who is “making a stream of non-stop phone calls to try to hold the banks at bay. He hasn’t gotten a paycheck since December 29, and he doesn’t expect to get one any day soon.”
The New York Times (1/9, Tavernise, 17.59M) reports that as paychecks for federal employees “begin to stop, the negative effects threaten” the Washington area. The Times adds that Washington “boasts one of the country’s richest, strongest economies, powered by government spending and a large, stable federal workforce.” The Times cites George Mason University economist Stephen Fuller saying that if it is over “before February, the economic effect on the overall region would be minimal.” The Times adds, “for many federal workers, Friday would be the first day without a paycheck.” It also reports, “Many federal workers said they had savings and could manage, at least for now.”
