WASHINGTON –A 3-year pay freeze, unpaid furloughs, sequestration and congressionally ordered arbitrary increases in federal workers’ pension payments – with no increased payouts planned in the future – hit federal workers’ morale, top union leaders say. And that’s a problem not just for the workers and their unions, but for the country, since workers with low morale are more likely […]

Today’s compromise between Senate Budget Chairman Patty Murray and House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan provides much needed relief from the harmful policy of sequestration. While not without its flaws, the compromise restores almost two-thirds of the cuts to education and other nondefense discretionary (NDD) programs in 2014, although with less relief to come in 2015. Most notably for schools, it […]

On Oct. 16, 2013, President Obama signed legislation approved by Congress to end a 16-day government shutdown. The deal funded the government through Jan. 15, 2014, and raised the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling until Feb. 7,2014, thus avoiding a potentially disastrous default in late October 2013. The end of the shutdown sent hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal workers back […]

On November 7, 2013, AFSA attended a meeting of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education stakeholders. The meeting was called by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Sub-Committee on Labor, HHS, and Education, and generated so much interest that it was standing room only. Senator Harkin thanked everyone in attendance for “advocating for people who do […]

Because members of Congress were unable to perform the most basic function that they were elected to do, and pledged to do when they were sworn into office, it is ultimately our nation’s students who may suffer the most.

WASHINGTON—Here we go again.  With the federal government facing yet another politically inspired shutdown at midnight on Sept. 30, the American Federation of Government Employees has had to mobilize against it yet again. And this time there’s an added threat, according to a recent news story: When the federal workers finally get called back to their jobs they might – […]

Schools across the nation have already been subject to the largest cuts to education in our nation’s history under sequestration this year. Now, funding for the federal government is set to expire on September 30th. On September 20, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a spending resolution that would keep sequestration in place, and would require another $19 billion in […]

On Wednesday, August 28th, AFSA attended an event held at the Center for American Progress (CAP), “Empty Seats, Lost Opportunities.” The event’s focus was on the critical Head Start program, and the damage sequestration is causing to the program, and more importantly, the children it serves. Head Start has provided comprehensive services for poor children since 1965. However, this national […]

WASHINGTON —Some 126 lawmakers, led by the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, formally protested the Pentagon’s plan to furlough all civilian workers for 14 days each between now and Sept. 30, the American Federation of Government Employees reported. The furloughs, mandated by the “sequester” which cut billions of dollars in defense spending, hit all units equally even […]

From Seattle to Albuquerque, from San Diego to Chicago, the AFL-CIO and one of its major unions, the American Federation of Government Employees, hosted mass rallies on March 20 to protest the federal budget cuts, called the “sequester,” and to highlight their impact on workers and citizens nationwide.  But Congress didn’t listen. The object of the protests was to convince […]

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