This week, Congress must enact a continuing appropriations act, or Continuing Resolution (CR), to prevent a government shutdown beginning Sunday, October 1. At this point, it is unclear if Congress will reach an agreement to prevent a shutdown. There are also question marks about this would impact railroad workers and Railroad Retirement beneficiaries.
• FRA: According to a report from APTA, 35 percent of FRA’s 1,006 employees would be furloughed during a government shutdown. Remaining FRA personnel would be focused primarily on activities necessary to protect life and property. For instance, FRA staff that manage rail accident/incident investigations would continue working.
• STB: According to industry publication Railway Age, a shutdown would also impact the Surface Transportation Board. “However, Senate-confirmed agency administrators and Senate-confirmed STB members cannot be furloughed during a government shutdown, as their jobs and compensation are provided by statute. And while furloughed employees technically are furloughed without pay, it is customary, upon the end of the shutdown, that Congress votes to provide all furloughed federal employees with back pay. The STB and FRA will retain a skeleton staff to deal with emergencies such as car supply issues, emergency service orders and challenged embargoes.”
• RRB: The Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) published a contingency plan for government shutdowns in 2017. All activities related to the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (RUIA) would continue without change because these are funded by a permanent appropriation. Activities needed to ensure accurate and timely payment of benefits under the Railroad Retirement Act (RRA), which are not funded through an annual appropriation, would continue. Activities which would continue within limited capacity include: Processing partial-to-final awards; processing spouse-to-widow adjustments; processing one-payment-only awards; processing new supplemental annuity awards; and providing pre-retirement counseling and preparing annuity estimates.