“Essential Waste”
The first government shutdown since 1996 began on October 1, 2013, spurred by a debate over the federal budget and Obamacare. Approximately 800,000 federal employees were declared “non-essential” and furloughed.
The notion that some federal employees were deemed “non-essential” and others “essential” sparked controversy. An October 1 USA Today article pointed out that each federal agency is responsible for coming up with its own emergency plan if the government shuts down, based on instruction from the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management. Qualifications for an “essential” employee include the responsibilities of protecting public health, safety, or property. This definition also includes political appointees that are deemed “essential” because, by law, they cannot be placed on leave.
By allowing agencies to deem certain employees “non-essential,” the government concedes that many employees are not vital to the agency’s mission. According to an interactive list published by CNN, many federal agencies maintained a meager amount of employees during the shutdown. The fiscal year 2014 budget requested $8.2 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but 93 percent of EPA employees were furloughed during the shutdown, having been labeled “non-essential.” The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received a budget request of $373 million, but 95 percent of its employees were furloughed. The Federal Communications Commission was allotted a budget request of $359 million, but 98 percent of workers were furloughed and labeled “non-essential.” Since the sky did not fall during the two-plus weeks that the government was shutdown, it stands to reason that the federal government could save billions of dollars annually by reducing the number of “non-essential” employees.
An October 9, 2013 Huffington Post article cited a few shocking examples of what the federal government had deemed “essential.” Under the government shutdown, the House of Representatives’ gym and the Capitol subway system remained open. At the same time, clinical trials at the National Institute of Health and a Nobel Prize-winning physicist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology were deemed “non-essential.” Clearly, there is poor clarity in determining what is or is not “essential.”
The compromise worked out between the White House and Congress requires the federal government to be funded through January 15, and raises the debt ceiling through February 7. The brief shutdown proved that the federal government can operate with a skeleton staff. While negotiating a budget deal to replace the current continuing resolution, the President and Congress should consider downsizing the federal workforce to achieve significant cost savings.
— Matt Brown
