I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1988
To amend chapter 85 of title 5, United States Code, to clarify that Federal
civilian and military personnel excepted from a furlough during a Govern-
ment shutdown are eligible for unemployment compensation, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH10, 2025
Mrs. D
INGELL(for herself, Ms. DELBENE, Ms. TLAIB, Mrs. MCIVER, Ms.
V
ELA´ZQUEZ, and Ms. SEWELL) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Ways and Means
A BILL
To amend chapter 85 of title 5, United States Code, to
clarify that Federal civilian and military personnel ex-
cepted from a furlough during a Government shutdown
are eligible for unemployment compensation, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Pay Federal Workers 4
and Servicemembers Act’’. 5
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•HR 1988 IH
SEC. 2. ELIGIBILITY FOR UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION 1
FOR FEDERAL CIVILIAN AND MILITARY PER-2
SONNEL EXCEPTED FROM FURLOUGH DUR-3
ING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN. 4
(a) F
EDERALCIVILIANEMPLOYEES.— 5
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subchapter I of chapter 85 6
of title 5, United States Code, is amended by adding 7
at the end the following: 8
‘‘§ 8510. Eligibility for unemployment compensation 9
for Federal personnel excepted from fur-10
lough during Government shutdown 11
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—With respect to any lapse in ap-12
propriations beginning on or after March 14, 2025, each 13
covered employee shall be, solely for the purpose of deter-14
mining eligibility for unemployment compensation under 15
this subchapter or subchapter II (as the case may be), 16
deemed for the duration of the lapse in appropriations to 17
be— 18
‘‘(1) totally separated from Federal service; and 19
‘‘(2) eligible for unemployment compensation 20
benefits under the applicable subchapter with no 21
waiting period for such eligibility to accrue. 22
‘‘(b) C
OVEREDEMPLOYEEDEFINED.—In this sec-23
tion, the term ‘covered employee’ means any of the fol-24
lowing Federal personnel who are excepted from furlough 25
and are not being paid due to a lapse in appropriations: 26
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•HR 1988 IH
‘‘(1) Any member of the Armed Forces or the 1
Commissioned Corps of the National Oceanic and 2
Atmospheric Administration. 3
‘‘(2) Any Federal civilian employee who is an 4
excepted employee or an employee performing emer-5
gency work, as such terms are defined by the Office 6
of Personnel Management.’’. 7
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of sec-8
tions for such subchapter is amended by adding at 9
the end the following: 10
‘‘8510. Eligibility for unemployment compensation for Federal personnel ex-
cepted from furlough during Government shutdown.’’.
(a) APPLICATION.—The amendment made by sub-11
section (a) shall apply to weeks of unemployment begin-12
ning on or after March 14, 2025. 13
Æ
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