Largest Federal Workers Union Calls for ‘Clean’ Bill to End Shutdown

The Washington Post

13:42 JST, October 28, 2025

The nation’s largest union of federal workers is calling on lawmakers to pass a stopgap funding measure to end the government shutdown, calling it an “avoidable crisis” as the impasse approaches the one-month mark.

The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 800,000 federal and D.C. government workers, said in a statement Monday that the shutdown is punishing the people who keep the country running.

“Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in the statement. “Today I’m making mine: it’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship. Put every single federal worker back on the job with full back pay – today.”

The federal government shut down Oct. 1 after the Senate did not pass a House-approved measure to extend funding at current levels for seven weeks. Democrats and Republicans have been deadlocked over extending health care subsidies that otherwise will expire at the end of the year, with neither side budging. Republicans have suggested they are open to debate on the issue – but only after the government reopens.

The shutdown has put at least 670,000 federal workers on furlough, while about 730,000 others are working without pay, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. President Donald Trump has used the shutdown to institute mass firings and cancel programs he dislikes, and his administration has threatened to withhold back pay from furloughed workers.

The AFGE represents federal workers across nearly every agency. The agencies with the highest memberships are the Social Security Administration and the Veterans Affairs, Defense and Homeland Security departments. Kelley called it a “national disgrace” that federal employees have been standing in line at food banks after missing a second paycheck during the shutdown.

“These are patriotic Americans – parents, caregivers, and veterans – forced to work without pay while struggling to cover rent, groceries, gas and medicine because of political disagreements in Washington. That is unacceptable,” Kelley said in the statement, first reported by NBC News, citing polling that showed the shutdown was unpopular. “It’s time for our leaders to start focusing on how to solve problems for the American people, rather than on who is going to get the blame for a shutdown that Americans dislike.”

The AFGE endorsed then-vice president Kamala Harris for president last year and has several active lawsuits against the Trump administration, including over the mass firings during the shutdown.

The union’s statement is likely to put more pressure on Senate Democrats to support a House-passed continuing resolution. Five more Democratic senators would have to vote with Republicans to reach the 60 votes needed to advance the bill.

Sen. Dick Durbin (Illinois), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said the AFGE’s statement would carry a lot of weight with his party, but he stopped short of saying that it would change their overall strategy.

“I’ve talked to them, and they’re in a terrible mess,” Durbin told reporters. “So many of their workers who are not being paid – I can understand why they did that.”

But multiple Democratic senators who represent high concentrations of federal workers didn’t change their tune Monday, insisting, as they have from the start of the shutdown, that they want Republicans to agree to policies that would bring down health care costs.

“I’m committed to immediately reopening the government in a responsible way that prevents the illegal budget actions Trump has taken – including against our federal workers – and stops Americans’ health care costs from exploding,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) said in a statement to The Washington Post. “In the meantime, I’m also working to immediately pay all our federal employees and prevent this Administration’s mass firings. Federal employees did not cause the shutdown, and they should not have to bear the brunt of it.”

Democrats have demanded that Trump meet with them directly to negotiate an end to the shutdown, but the president has insisted that he will not meet until the government reopens. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) has said that the lack of trust in Trump has kept Democrats resistant to voting to reopen the government.

“I’ve been clear and consistent that to earn my vote to reopen the government, we need to be on a path to fixing the health care mess Republicans created and the White House needs to provide an assurance that a deal is a deal,” he said in a statement Monday. “Otherwise, what’s to stop this Administration from immediately firing federal workers and refusing to allocate appropriated funds to Virginia, as it has done since January 20?”

In addition to demanding that the government be reopened and workers receive back pay, Kelley called on lawmakers to address rising costs and to fix “the broken appropriations process.”

“None of these steps favor one political side over another. They favor the American people – who expect stability from their government and responsibility from their leaders,” he said.