{"id":292261,"date":"2025-10-10T15:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T15:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/292261\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T15:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T15:28:10","slug":"ap-reader-question-what-if-essential-federal-workers-dont-show-up-for-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/292261\/","title":{"rendered":"AP reader question: What if essential federal workers don\u2019t show up for work?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s a question about the shutdown submitted by an Associated Press reader, Eli B.: What happens if essential federal workers\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a question about the shutdown submitted by an Associated Press reader, Eli B.:<\/p>\n<p>What happens if essential federal workers don\u2019t show up for work?<\/p>\n<p>Here is where we need to get to know the Antideficiency Act, the federal law that lays out which government duties must continue even if Congress hasn\u2019t appropriated funding for them. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also the whole reason that agencies have \u201cessential\u201d and \u201cnonessential\u201d workers at all. Since the act mandates what work must go on, the people tasked with doing that work are obligated to show up.<\/p>\n<p>If they don\u2019t, they could be disciplined, suspended or terminated. They could also create massive disruptions.<\/p>\n<p>Take a look at the 35-day shutdown that stretched from 2018 into 2019, the longest shutdown in U.S. history. During it, thousands of flights were delayed when unpaid air traffic controllers and airport security screeners <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/e1520436b4664d8ab000bf134d9d6722\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">called in sick<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>This created lengthy airport lines, grounded government workers and contractors \u2014 and cost airlines tens of millions in lost revenue.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Do you have a <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/live\/donald-trump-news-updates-10-3-2025?tab=00000199-a9ce-d8db-a1db-f9cf649d0001\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">question for AP<\/a> about the government shutdown? You can <a href=\"https:\/\/modules.wearehearken.com\/associated-press\/embed\/12545\/share\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">submit it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright<br \/>\n                        \u00a9\u00a02025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s a question about the shutdown submitted by an Associated Press reader, Eli B.: What happens if essential&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":292262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,420,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-292261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-jobs","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115350582379349607","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}