Dem senator reveals deal that secured shutdown’s fate — says it was ‘worth it’ to stop federal layoffs

Democrats didn’t get what they were looking for after pushing the nation into its longest shutdown on record, but to Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., that doesn’t necessarily mean they came away empty-handed. 

Kaine said that although Democrats failed to achieve concessions on the emergency Obamacare COVID-era subsidies at the center of the 41-day standoff, it was the resolution’s language on federal employees that ultimately drew his support.

Kaine, who brokered the bill’s prohibition against reductions in force (RIFs), joined seven other Democrats to advance the legislation.

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“We reached a meeting of the minds at about 5:45 this afternoon. I walked into the caucus meeting with just a kind of deadpan face, and they were like, ‘What’s going on?’ I said, ‘We’ve got the language we need.’”

“Why did they finally give me the moratorium on mischief on RIFs? They needed my vote,” Kaine said. 

Kaine said Republicans may have been more inclined to meet his demands on federal employees following Democratic victories on election night last week in Virginia, New Jersey, New York and California.

The bill that cleared the Senate’s filibuster hurdle on Sunday would fund the government through Jan. 30. It also includes three of the government’s 12 year-long spending bills; language on the legislative branch, agriculture, and Veterans Affairs and military construction.

It did not include any language on extending the expiring Obamacare tax credits that Democrats had demanded. Democrats, led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wanted at least a one-year extension of those subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of the year.

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Instead, Kaine secured a guarantee that the Trump administration would not conduct any more mass federal worker layoffs — at least until Jan. 30. The bill also requires the government to reinstate the employees it let go during the shutdown, with back pay included.

Ahead of the agreement he reached on Sunday, Kaine had told his party’s leadership he might break with the majority of Democrats if it meant protecting federal employees from further layoffs.

“He disagreed,” Kaine said of his conversation with the minority leader. “I went to Sen. Schumer at the start of this and told him, ‘Here’s where I am, and here’s where I’m likely to be. I’m with you for a long time, but if there’s a path forward that can help this federal workforce, which is so huge in Virginia, you [have to] know I’m going to be real sensitive to that.’” 

Virginia has the third-largest federal workforce presence of any state, according to research by the Library of Congress.

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The restrictions against RIFs could extend beyond the January lifetime of the spending bill. 

“The CR has a provision that automatically comes into the next CR,” Kaine said, referring to the short-term spending package commonly referred to as a continuing resolution or CR. “It’s kind of wonky. There’s a separate provision that says once it’s in, it stays in unless it’s affirmatively repealed.”

When asked if the government shutdown was worth it, Kaine said he thought so.

“To federal employees who are not going to be traumatized by RIFs going forward? Yeah,” he said.