Kevin Hassett's positive perspective on federal employees' vacation time may be of little comfort to workers who are currently feeling the financial pinch of being out of work. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Government Shutdown White House economic adviser appears to compare shutdown to 'vacation' for furloughed workers

Federal workers furloughed because of the government shutdown might be “better off” after they return to work because they essentially are getting a free vacation, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said this week.

President Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser made the suggestion in an interview on “PBS NewsHour.” He said many of the 800,000 federal employees affected by the three-week partial government shutdown had been planning to take vacation days around the Christmas and New Year holidays, and thus wouldn’t have worked during parts of the shutdown anyway — but now they get to keep their vacation days.


Hassett had been asked by PBS economic correspondent Paul Solman if he saw the shutdown of a quarter of the federal government — which is poised to become the longest in U.S. history at midnight — affecting the economy in the long term. He appeared to suggest that furloughing around 25 percent of federal employees would seem ominous.

“But then, when the shutdown ends, they go back to work and they get their back pay,” he said. “A huge share of government workers were going to take vacation days, say, between Christmas and New Year’s. And then we have a shutdown, and so they can’t go to work, and so then they have the vacation, but they don’t have to use their vacation days. And then they come back, and then they get their back pay. Then they’re — in some sense, they’re better off.”

After a follow-up question, Hassett predicted there could be a short-term effect but that there would be no dire consequences in the long term.

He did, however, allow that the shutdown would have cost the economy around $20 billion in output through Friday and an additional $10 billion per week after that. The hit to the overall U.S. economy has been estimated at around $1.2 billion per week.

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Hassett’s positive perspective on federal employees’ vacation time may be of little comfort to workers who are currently feeling the financial pinch of being out of work.

Friday marks the first day that many of the federal workers impacted by the shutdown have missed paychecks, prompting some to take extreme measures to mitigate the financial strain. The Office of Personnel Management was panned last month after it “inadvertently” posted guidance for government employees advising them to barter with landlords if they aren’t able to pay their rent in full. OPM has provided employees with sample letters they can give to creditors to explain late payments.

Other federal employees have turned to selling their belongings on online marketplaces like Craigslist, or launching a side business to make ends meet while the shutdown drags on without any end in sight.

Several lawmakers have vowed they won’t accept any pay they would’ve received for the duration of the shutdown or have donated their pay in solidarity with federal workers. Lawmakers across the political spectrum have called for opening the parts of the government unrelated to the current dispute over border security, and Democrats have accused the president of holding federal workers “hostage” over his demands for money to fund a border wall.

Though federal workers are expected to be paid back for their lost wages eventually — Congress cleared such a bill Friday, which Trump is expected to sign — there is no end to the shutdown in sight.

Groups who advocate on behalf of government workers, including the country’s largest federal workers’ union and the union that represents air traffic controllers, have sued the government, while a professional organization for FBI agents this week pleaded for lawmakers to reopen the Justice Department.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence to have heard from federal workers who have acknowledged the struggle of being furloughed but encouraged him to stand firm in his demands for border wall funding. Union officials representing Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees last week spoke in support of the shutdown at an impromptu White House briefing, but Trump has provided no evidence that support among government employees is as widespread as he suggests.

