As the shutdown drags into its 31st day, Rhode Island senators are planning hearings this week on proposed “tax payment relief″ and other measures aimed at easing some of the financial pain on unpaid federal workers and, ultimately, protecting them against loss of their homes.
Those required to work — without pay — during the shutdown have traditionally been paid after the appropriations standoff ends. But their tax, rent, mortgage and credit card bills, car loan payments and insurance don’t stop in the interim. And with no end in sight to the shutdown, legislation has been introduced in Congress — and in some states, including Rhode Island, to protect federal workers from losing their homes and their vehicles during the shutdown.
On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on a bill to give city and town councils the authority to provide temporary relief from the payment of any property taxes due by state or federal employees “when either the state or federal government cease the operation of governmental functions, in whole or in part.”
“Third-quarter tax payments are coming up, and hundreds of Rhode Islanders are without the pay they expected. Fortunately, there are many people in our communities who want to help them. This bill would allow cities and towns around the state to do just that, in whatever way works best for them, whether that’s a grace period, waiving penalties or something else,″ said the sponsor, Senate Finance Committee Chairman William Conley, D-East Providence.
“Our communities have reached out to us asking what they can do, and this will give them the flexibility to help in the way that they determine suits their needs,” Conley said.
At the same time on Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on a companion bill — The Federal Furloughed Employees Protection Act — that goes a few steps further.
“Nobody should lose their home or their car or go into default on their student loans as a result of this shutdown. Employees are either locked out or have been working without pay, and this financial hardship is no fault of theirs. Just as we afford similar protections to deployed service members, we should protect those who are going unpaid because of the shutdown from long-term financial consequences,” said the sponsor, Senator Dawn Euer, D-Newport.
Euer’s bill too would apply to unpaid federal workers “during periods when the federal government ceases the operation of government functions, in whole or in part, as a result of the United States Congress failing to pass adequate appropriations bills ... or as a result of the president of the United States failing to sign into law an appropriations bill or resolution.”
Under those circumstances, furloughed employees — and those required to work — without pay, would be entitled to:
• Suspension of the obligation to make payments under credit contract to include credit card accounts;
• Suspension of the obligation to make payments on a lease for an apartment or residence which constitutes the primary residence of the furloughed employee;
• Suspension of any obligation to make payments on residential loans for the furloughed employee’s primary residence;
• Suspension of the obligation to make payments under installment contracts including, but not limited to, motor vehicles and insurance premiums;
• A stay or postponement of all civil proceedings in district or superior court.
Assuming the shutdown drags into the week, the Senate plans to call in top officials in the Raimondo administration to talk about the potential impact on people across Rhode Island of interruptions in government-run financial assistance programs, such as food stamps (now known as SNAP benefits).
Last week, Rhode Island’s Department of Human Services director Courtney Hawkins announced that the state intended to pay the next round of SNAP benefits early — sometime on or about January 20 — to make sure they get paid.
She said the issuance date was moved up due to funding terms associated with a soon-expiring congressional continuing resolution. As she explained the predicament: any monies issued after that date will come from a United States Department of Agriculture contingency fund.
The most immediate problem; the USDA spends about $5 billion monthly on SNAP, while contingency funds only amount to $3 billion nationally.
“We will certainly be nervous about March,” Hawkins told reporters gathered for a press conference. “As soon as the budget passes, our fears go away.”