The Trump Shutdown Is Undermining National Security And Law Enforcement
USA Today: Security, Immigration Controls Fray As Impasse Over
Trump's Wall Stretches Into Its Fourth Week.
Washington Post: ‘Unacceptable’: Coast Guard’s Top Officer
Criticizes Lack Of Payment In Government Shutdown.
Axios: Aviation Unions Say Level Of Air Safety Risk Is
"Unprecedented.”
The Trump
Shutdown is hurting America’s national security and undermining law
enforcement, forcing key national security personnel at federal agencies
ranging from the Coast Guard to TSA to work without pay, and putting tremendous
strain on air travel safety. In poll after poll, Americans overwhelmingly
oppose President Trump’s shutdown. It’s time for President Trump to stop
holding the government hostage over his expensive and ineffective wall.
FORMER HOMELAND
SECURITY SECRETARIES HAVE WARNED THAT NOT PAYING DHS EMPLOYEES IS
“UNCONSCIONABLE”
ABC News:
Not paying DHS employees is 'unconscionable,' former DHS secretaries say in
letter to President Donald Trump, Congress. “Former DHS secretaries Tom Ridge, Michael
Chertoff, Janet Napolitano, Jeh Johnson and John Kelly, who is also the
president's former chief of staff, signed the letter… The group said that the
department risks losing talented men and women, but shouldn't rely on charity
from others. They also pointed out that members of the Coast Guard, by law,
cannot quit or seek full-time, outside employment. ‘This is unconscionable,’
they wrote.” [ABC News, 1/23/19]
COAST GUARD
MEMBERS ARE GOING UNPAID BECAUSE OF THE TRUMP SHUTDOWN
NBC News:
42,000 Coast Guard members miss first paycheck due to government shutdown. “The nation's 42,000
active-duty Coast Guard members missed their scheduled paycheck Tuesday,
as the only military branch to work without pay during the government shutdown.
Because the Coast Guard is under the Department of Homeland Security, it is
getting no funding during the shutdown. All other parts of the military are
under the still-funded Department of Defense.” [NBC News, 1/15/19]
Washington
Post: ‘Unacceptable’: Coast Guard’s top officer criticizes lack of payment
in government shutdown. “Adm. Karl Schultz, the Coast Guard commandant, said he is
heartened by the outpouring of support Coast Guard personnel have received
across the country but expects more. ‘Ultimately, I find it unacceptable
that Coast Guard men and women have to rely on food pantries and donations to
get through day-to-day life as service members,’ he said, speaking on a
video posted to his Twitter account.” [Washington Post, 1/22/19]
AIR TRAVEL SAFETY
IS BEING UNDERMINED BY THE TRUMP SHUTDOWN
Axios:
Aviation unions say level of air safety risk is "unprecedented." The presidents of three aviation
unions — the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the Air Line Pilots
Association and the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA — issued a statement
Wednesday urging Congress and the White House to fund the government due to
increasing risks to the air safety environment. ‘We have a growing concern for
the safety and security of our members, our airlines, and the traveling public
due to the government shutdown. This is already the longest government shutdown
in the history of the United States and there is no end in sight. In our risk
averse industry, we cannot even calculate the level of risk currently at
play, nor predict the point at which the entire system will break. It is
unprecedented.’” [Axios, 1/24/19]
CNN: 10% of
TSA employees called out Sunday as shutdown continues. “The Transportation Security
Administration said one in 10 of its employees scheduled to work Sunday took
the day off, with many employees citing ‘financial limitations’
preventing them from working. ‘Yesterday's complete figures show that
TSA experienced a national rate of 10 percent of unscheduled absences compared
to a 3.1 percent rate one year ago on the same day, Jan. 20, 2018,’ the TSA
said in a statement Monday. ‘Many employees are reporting that they are not
able to report to work due to financial limitations.’” [CNN, 1/21/19]
LAW ENFORCEMENT
IS BEING STRETCHED THIN BECAUSE OF THE TRUMP SHUTDOWN
New York
Times: Report Says Shutdown Is Impeding F.B.I.’s Law Enforcement Efforts. “As the partial government
shutdown enters its fifth week, the funding freeze has impeded F.B.I.
efforts to crack down on child trafficking, violent crime and terrorism,
according to a report issued Tuesday by the group that represents the bureau’s
13,000 special agents.” [New York Times, 1/22/19]
Washington
Post: Shutdown threatens national security, FBI agents group warns. “With the shutdown well into its
third week, groups representing government employees ranging from those
who patrol borders and guard courthouses to those who make undercover drug buys
have expressed alarm that the political drama has reduced them to bargaining
chips while they continue doing dangerous jobs that keep Americans
safe.’” [Washington Post, 1/10/19]
Politico:
Shutdown's hidden impact: Frozen inspections, fraud cases. “The 24-day-old shutdown is
hobbling enforcement efforts throughout the federal government — halting
power plant and oil well inspections, slowing financial fraud probes and tax
audits, thwarting plane crash investigations and even delaying a probe into
Facebook's privacy practices. Agencies have also canceled training for
prosecutors who go after online child pornography and drug sales. The Justice
Department has furloughed most of its administrative judges, who enforce
immigration laws. And the Federal Communications Commission isn't responding to
consumer complaints about robocalls.” [Politico, 1/18/19]
ON THE BORDER,
FEDERAL EMPLOYEES ARE STRAINED BY THE TRUMP SHUTDOWN
USA Today:
Security, immigration controls fray as impasse over Trump's wall stretches into
its fourth week. “From the
high seas and airport terminals to desert border crossings and immigration
courtrooms, concerns about security and those responsible for maintaining
it mounted. Illegal border crossings have plummeted since 2006 because
of increased manpower at agencies such as the Coast Guard, TSA and Border
Patrol. Success could turn to crisis in weeks if the shutdown continues and pay
for those personnel is withheld, said Robert Pape, political science professor
and director of the University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats.”
[USA Today, 1/17/19]
Texas
Tribune: Shutdown over wall straining Border Patrol agents working
overtime without pay. “But
despite the feeling of normalcy, a current Department of Homeland Security
agent who previously worked for the Border Patrol and Customs and Border
Protection said the federal employees on the front line of the national
immigration battle are beginning to feel the strains of the impasse.
‘Morale is definitely low [inside the department]. But I can’t imagine how it
is at the bridge,’ said the agent, who spoke to The Texas Tribune on condition
of anonymity because he’s not authorized to speak to reporters.” [Texas
Tribune, 1/16/19]
FEDERAL PRISON
WORKERS ARE STRAINED BY THE TRUMP SHUTDOWN
Washington
Post: Tensions rise in federal prisons during shutdown as weary guards go
without pay and work double shifts. “Even though these employees are supposed to work, union
officials at 10 prisons reached by The Washington Post, including Lee, say the
number of employees who are not showing up for work has at least doubled since
the shutdown began. As a result, those showing up are routinely working double
shifts, correctional officers and other prison staff members say. Secretaries,
janitors and teachers are filling in for absent officers. At at least one
prison — Hazelton Federal Correctional Complex in West Virginia — the
number of assaults on officers has increased since the shutdown,
according to a union official there.” [Washington Post, 1/10/19]
Minneapolis Star
Tribune: Shutdown places unique stresses on federal prison workers in
Minnesota. “Among the
5,500 Minnesotans affected are hundreds of Federal Bureau of Prisons employees
who missed their first paycheck Friday. Union leaders say the families are being
forced to hastily cut costs and, in some cases, choose between paying for
groceries or medications. If the deadlock continues, the shutdown could drive
out entry-level officers, many of whom make less than $20 an hour. Attrition
at the federal penitentiaries in Sandstone, Rochester, Duluth and Waseca could
be dangerous, since understaffing has already prompted mandatory
overtime — an additional stressor for officers often required to pull double
shifts on no notice.” [Minneapolis Star Tribune, 1/18/19]
Raleigh News
& Observer: Shutdown forces Butner prison officers to work without
paychecks.
“Correctional officers at the prison complex in Butner are among the federal
employees who have been forced to work without pay during the partial
government shutdown, and could soon join a lawsuit challenging the policy. They
are among the workers and contractors starting to feel the effects of the
budget impasse that has stretched on for three weeks.” [Raleigh News &
Observer, 1/12/19]
CYBERSECURITY IS
UNDER THREAT BECAUSE OF THE TRUMP SHUTDOWN
CNBC: How
the government shutdown is putting national cybersecurity at risk. “Close to half of the employees
within the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure
Security Agency, or CISA — which works to help secure the nation’s critical
infrastructure industries, such as banking, water, energy and nuclear — are
furloughed. Eighty-five percent of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology workers have been furloughed as well, and these are the employees
who help private- and public-sector companies stay up to date on the latest
cyberattacks and mitigation techniques. The shutdown is also contributing to an
already stark brain drain of cybersecurity talent, creating new, possibly
disgruntled insider threats and ushering in a huge backlog of unchecked
and needed security updates.” [CNBC, 1/14/19]
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