A bill to provide a premium payment to employees who worked without receiving pay during the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security of 10 percent of the pay the employees should have received during the shutdown.

Plain-English Summary

This bill would provide a bonus payment to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees who were required to work during a government shutdown without receiving their regular paychecks at the time. Specifically, it would give those employees an extra 10 percent on top of the back pay they were already owed for the period they worked without compensation. For example, if an employee was owed $2,000 in back pay from the shutdown, they would receive an additional $200 as a premium payment under this bill.

The bill affects DHS employees — such as Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers, Border Patrol agents, Coast Guard members, and other homeland security personnel — who were classified as "essential" workers and therefore required to show up and work even when the government ran out of funding. These workers performed their jobs without knowing exactly when they would be paid, and this bill is designed to provide them with additional compensation to acknowledge that burden.

Currently, the bill has been introduced in the Senate and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which means it is in the early stages of the legislative process. The committee will decide whether to advance it for a full Senate vote. It is worth noting that while affected employees have typically received their full back pay after past shutdowns ended, this bill would go a step further by adding a 10 percent premium as recognition of the financial hardship and uncertainty those workers experienced.