Largest federal workers union urges Congress end shutdown by passing ‘clean’ stopgap

WASHINGTON — The largest union of federal workers in the country is publicly imploring Congress to pass a “clean” stopgap measure to end the government shutdown, ramping up pressure on Democrats to abandon their healthcare demands.

“Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,” American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) President Everett Kelley declared in a statement.

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“It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship.”

For the past month, Republicans have insisted on a “clean” continuing resolution to fund the government through Nov. 21 without any strings attached to buy time for a longer-term fix.

But Senate Democrats blocked the House-passed “clean” short-term spending patch and instead demanded that Republicans make expensive concessions on healthcare policy in exchange for reopening the government.

AFGE represents over 800,000 federal workers, many of whom have gone without pay since the beginning of the month due to the shutdown.