Local Congressmen weigh in on government shutdown; both blame the other party

PITTSBURGH — Friday is the first payday for federal employees since the government shutdown began.

But those paychecks will be smaller because they only cover the few days in the pay period before the shutdown.

Despite that, there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight to the stalemate on Capitol Hill.

“I think it’s terrible, honestly,” said Senator Dave McCormick, a Republican. “Here we are on day nine of the shutdown, and it’s starting to really impact people.

“I think it’s foolish to have the government shut down like this,” said Rep. Chris Deluzio, a Democrat.

There is finger-pointing by both parties on why the government is shut down.

“The idea that you’re going to hold the government hostage to get what you want is what the Democrats are doing,” McCormick told Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek. “They’ve said the legislation has just passed in the Working Family Tax Cut Act, which, the Big Beautiful Bill, reformed Medicaid and made some changes in that. They want to change that, allow healthcare to be available for illegal immigrants.”

“That’s just not true,” Deluzio told Havranek. “The law doesn’t allow for that and whoever’s saying that they know that’s not true and they’re lying, or they’re foolish and they should learn what the law really is.”

Deluzio, who represents Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District, said the issue is that subsidies for healthcare through the Affordable Care Act will expire if they’re not extended, which Republicans aren’t planning to do.

“A 60-year-old couple in my district making about the average income, around $80,000, they can see premiums go up $12,000 if Congress doesn’t act,” Deluzio said.

More impacts of the shutdown are starting to be felt.

Friday marks the first payday since the shutdown started.

Federal employees, like air traffic controllers and TSA agents at the airport, will see a smaller-than-normal paycheck, as pay will only be given for the days worked prior to the start of the shutdown in this pay period.

If the government is still shut down next Wednesday, those in the military will stop being paid.

“They should get paid, and I think it’s outrageous that you’re going to ask service members, law enforcement, so many others, folks who work at the airport, to show up to work and not get paid,” Deluzio said.

Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek asked Senator McCormick for his thoughts on President Donald Trump’s announcement that not all furloughed federal employees deserve backpay.

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“I actually did not hear the president say that. I’m unaware of that policy statement, but my general philosophy is that we need to obviously pay our federal employees,” McCormick said. “If they’re furloughed, they’re actually expecting to come back to work. It’s not like there’s some alternative form of income, so I think we should pay the people we made obligations to.”

Deluzio is calling on House Speaker Mike Johnson to call representatives back to Washington to work towards a deal. Johnson announced Thursday he will not put a standalone military pay bill on the floor for a vote.

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