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Washington offering unemployment benefits to unpaid federal employees

Sara Gentzler   January 25, 2019  

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee yesterday announced that the state will extend unemployment benefits to all federal employees who are furloughed or working full- or part-time without pay due to the partial federal government shutdown. The shutdown centers around a stalemate between Congress and President Trump, who wants $5.7 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.


Today marks the 35th day of the shutdown — and the second missed payday for nearly 16,000 Washington-based federal workers, according to the governor’s office.

“Thousands of those Washington-based federal workers are being told they must work anyway, and therefore have no option but to hope this shutdown ends,” Inslee said in a press statement. “It is unconscionable that the president is turning these public servants into his political pawns. We will take care of Washingtonians, even if the president won’t.”

Employment Security Department (ESD) Commissioner Suzi LeVine met with Inslee and representatives from Washington businesses yesterday to talk strategy. According to a Medium post from Inslee’s office explaining the action, LeVine said the ESD’s first preference would be an end to the shutdown — its second choice: federal protection for the workers impacted.

“Absent movement on any of these options, we’re taking action to protect those workers who are forced to work with no paycheck, no safety net and no ability to find alternative work during this time,” LeVine said in the Medium post. “It’s the compassionate and responsible thing to do.”

ESD now has a webpage dedicated to helping impacted federal employees claim those benefits.

According to that page, the first week employees will be eligible to receive unemployment payments is after one “mandatory unpaid waiting week.” If furloughed employees are later paid for the weeks they receive unemployment benefits, they’re responsible for repaying those benefits and are given the option to do so in monthly installments.

A list from the governor’s office of impacts the shutdown is having on Washington includes:

  • Limited U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) staff for inspecting Washington State Ferries;
  • Ceasing of the Pesticide Data Program, which monitors pesticide residue on food;
  • Halting of federal food safety inspections;
  • Halting of students’ applications for federal financial aid;
  • Several impacts on Washington’s tribal nations, including requiring tribes to fund programs that are typically federally funded, “widespread” furloughs of Indian Health Service employees, a 23-percent budget shortfall at the Seattle Indian Health Board, and estimated losses to Colville Confederated Tribes of $1.5 million per week due to prevention of timber sales;
  • The Port of Seattle staffing some TSA positions “to address increasing wait times and rates of TSA absenteeism;” and
  • Delays to the Hanford clean-up process and environmental restoration projects.

The list also lays out several impacts that would be felt in the coming months, should the shutdown continue.

CNN reports that other a handful of other states are offering similar unemployment assistance to furloughed federal workers, including New Mexico, Colorado, Vermont, and California.

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