The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Waesche (WSML 751) crew members reunite with family, friends and loved ones after returning to their Base Alameda, California, home port, Aug. 11, 2024, following a 120-day Indo-Pacific patrol. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Petty Officer Matthew Masaschi.

The Coast Guard is still out there doing the job even if they are not getting paid. Same for other government employees including TSA. Withholding pay is morally wrong, but it does not have to be that way. The fiction that until there is a budget the Federal government cannot pay its employees is BS. This was changed for DOD, we can change it for the entire government.

Active duty DOD military and essential civilians can continue to be paid even during a shutdown. “The law changing to ensure active-duty military were paid during a government shutdown was the Pay Our Military Act (POMA; P.L. 113-39), signed by President Barack Obama on September 30, 2013. This law was passed specifically to avoid interrupting pay to military and essential civilians during the FY2014 shutdown. (AI)”

If an employer hires someone, he is obligated to continue paying him until he is fired. No reason this should not apply to the Federal Government as well.

Even if the Federal government is “shutdown,” they continue to pay retired pay and social security. Not configuring the system to continue paying people to continue to do the business of government is a calculated decision that helps pass legislation that otherwise would not. It is as if the Uncle Sam is putting a gun to his head and threatening to commit suicide if he does not get everything he wants.

In the civilian world, if your boss stops paying you, you can quit and find another job and sue the employer for back wages. Military can’t do that, and we really don’t want other employees doing it either. The Federal Government recognizes its obligations and has always paid back pay even to worker who were told not to report for work. The result is unsatisfactory to everyone. The employees have financial hardships. Government jobs are less appealing and consequently harder to fill with qualified people. For a time the Government loses the services of many of its employees, but ends up paying them anyway. We applied a partial solution to DOD, but really we just need to recognize that the government has made a contract with its employees and it should fulfill its obligations.

There are other things they can do as well.

The Coast Guard should be an independent executive agency since no department cover all eleven Coast Guard missions. Only about half are DHS missions. We don’t really need to add additional layers of bureaucracy, the Coast Guard leadership is going to have to testify before Congress anyway.

We don’t have to lump everything together. We could avoid a lot of delay if each agency budget was voted on separately. A thousand pages of justification for hundreds of programs really does not facilitate decision making. Better to quickly approve the programs that have bipartisan support, like the Coast Guard, rather than have them mired in contentious debate over unrelated issues.