While Navy veteran Ron Witherall was glad to be back to work at his Department of Defense job at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station Oct. 7, he said he plans to take his opinions about the recent federal government shutdown straight to the polls.
“When I vote this time around, if there’s ‘incumbent’ behind your name you’re out, I don’t care if you’re a republican, Tea Party or democrat,” Witherall said. “If you can’t work together in Congress and pass a budget then we need new people that can work together across lines in the sand and get the job done.”
Due to Congress’ inability to agree on a national budget, the government effectively shutdown nearly all federal operations Oct. 1. until a short term agreement was reached Oct. 16. The result was the furlough of hundreds of civilian staff at NAS Whidbey and roughly 400,000 nationally, according to reports.
At the eleventh hour prior to the government shutdown, Congress passed the Pay Our Military Act, which was later interpreted to include certain members of DOD’s civilian employees who provide support to members of the Armed Forces.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Oct. 5 announced the recall of most of the civilian employees who had been furloughed due to the government shutdown.
Many essential federal services island wide were not affected by the shutdown, however, including the U.S. Postal Service, Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. The federal Women, Infants and Children program or WIC has been funded through the end of October.
The furlough was the second in a matter of months for Witherall, a retired Navy chief of 20 years who works in the hazmat center on base. He and roughly 1,200 local DOD employees who were furloughed in July one day-a-week for three weeks due to sequestration.
For employees like Witherall the furloughs put them in a strange predicament, where they were able to start drawing federal unemployment, but then have to turn around and suspend it. On top of that, now that the retroactive pay legislation has been approved, Witherall will have to pay back any unemployment he may have received.
“I’ll pay back my unemployment insurance benefit but who knows,” Witherall said.
For that reason he is keeping his unemployment insurance open, he said, until Congress plasses a long-term solution for the country’s budget. The Oct. 16 agreement only funds the country’s budget through mid-January.
“Congress is effectively hurting our nation and it looks like it will get worse unless they can finally do their job and pass a budget and keep the nation from going into default,” Witherall said.
“I know contractors that work on base that were furloughed and I’m sure they will not get retroactive back-pay. This is just one example of how Congress has effectively hurt our nation. Congress needs to do their job in a timely manner and stop playing this finger pointing game.”
Like Witherall, NAS Whidbey computer assistant Kristi Dutton was sent home Tuesday, Oct. 2 after two hours of work.
“To put it politely, I was not happy,” Dutton said. “I was as angry and upset as everyone else was. Here we are getting sent home, and all these guys in D.C. are still getting paid.”
Dutton echoed Witherall’s sentiment that she feels the country’s current representation is not doing their jobs, and should be voted out of office.
“If I was doing a crappy job like them at my job, I’d be fired,” Dutton said.
Dutton confirmed Oct. 7 that she was returning to work Oct. 9. However, she said, the week without work created undue stress for her family, particularly after the furlough in July.
“You start to get back to a good recovery program, and then they send you home again,” Dutton said. “You think, ‘They’re being nice us, but what’s next.’”
