January 11, 2019 — As thousands of federal workers in Alaska miss their first paycheck of the partial government shutdown, members of the state’s congressional delegation are searching for solutions to an impasse that’s already one of the longest in history.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, concerned about the hardship on federal workers and Alaska’s economy, said Thursday she’s working with a group of Senate colleagues on a short-term funding bill that would open government and provide a window to address President Donald Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion in border wall funding.
With government temporarily reopened, there would be a period of time to resolve the issue over the wall, after which full appropriations bills could be passed, Murkowski said in a phone interview.
“We’re trying to offer up a process on how we can address some of these issues led by the president’s priority for border security, and do this at the same time as we’re able to open the government,” she said.
In Alaska, 5,207 federal workers will miss a paycheck Friday, said Dave Owens, Alaska representative for the American Federation of Government Employees union. The shutdown that began on Dec. 22 affected about 800,000 federal workers in nine agencies.