A group of Republican lawmakers on Wednesday introduced legislation to ensure that law enforcement and “essential personnel” who work during the partial government shutdown are paid.
Republican Reps. Bob Gibbs (Ohio), Susan Brooks (Ind.), Scott Tipton (Colo.), Morgan Griffith (Va.), and Mark Meadows (N.C.) introduced the Providing Pay for Essential Employees Act, the Daily Caller first reported. The legislation would ensure that members of the federal workforce deemed “essential” to national security and certain government functions—”air traffic controllers, Border Patrol agents, and federal law enforcement officials, among others”—who need to work through the shutdown are paid.
While announcing the legislation, Gibbs and his co-sponsors laid the blame for the shutdown squarely on the shoulders of their Democratic colleagues.
“While Democrats continue to play politics with border security, federal employees dedicated to their mission of keeping America safe and our border secure are still going to work knowing they will be missing their paychecks,” Gibbs said in a statement. “They should not be caught in the middle of political ploys by politicians who are not serious about securing our border.”
Read more at the Washington Free Beacon.
