The number of federal civilian employees in
Hawaii that are either
furloughed or working without pay 20 days after the government partially shut down has been tallied at some 2,741, according to website governing.com, which focuses on state and local government.
The organization said that’s 12.2 percent of the civilian federal workforce of 22,449 in the state —
excluding the Defense
Department’s active duty military which was previously funded through the fiscal year.
While that means nearly 88 percent of workers are getting paid, the bigger financial picture is worsening as the shutdown, which started on Dec. 22, continues to drag on.
Unpaid federal workers nationwide owe $438 million in mortgage and rent payments this month,
according to real estate website zillow.com.
Reserve and alternate funds are rapidly being drained, and money is being borrowed to make payments.
Four nonprofits that operate in Pearl Harbor — Pacific Historic Parks, Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, Battleship Missouri Memorial and USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park — have put up as much as $18,000 a day to fund National Park Service operations and keep the USS Arizona Memorial open.
Officials have said that funding is practically at its limit — raising the specter of a closure and loss of tourism-related spending.
As of Friday, the Friends of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park had raised about $114,000 for some park service staff to work at the Hawaii island park, according to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.
Of the Coast Guard’s 1,004 personnel mainly
in Hawaii but also Guam and other locations in the Pacific, 835 are active duty, 59 are civilians and 110 are reservists.
The active duty force of 42,000 received paychecks on Dec. 31 through internal funding shifts. But the possibility looms that active duty Coast Guard members now won’t get paid on Jan. 15.
Retired Adm. Thad Allen, a former Coast Guard commandant, fumed about the lack of an appropriation to keep the service funded.
“It is beyond troubling that Coast Guard men and women are being unnecessarily subjected to financial hardship while enduring the operational, mission-related circumstances that are accepted as part of their compact with their country,” he said in one opinion piece.
Appearing on National Public Radio Wednesday, Allen was asked if it was realistic to expect someone in a lower-paying job in the Coast Guard to miss a few paychecks and not worry about it too much.
“No. It’s an outrage,” Allen said.
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii was among a group of 22 lawmakers to introduce a bill to protect federal workers and their families from foreclosures, evictions and loan defaults during shutdowns.
Schatz noted that “real people are suffering. Right now, thousands of federal workers and their families are struggling to pay rent and make ends meet. It’s absolutely unacceptable.”