U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick was the lone Republican cosponsor this week on a bill to pay federal contractors for work done during the government shutdown.
The bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.) and four other Democrats, had the backing of 100 Democratic House members and no other Republicans, according to a release.
The bill would secure back pay for the thousands of federal contract workers, including janitorial, food and security workers, who face furloughs and missed paychecks but aren’t given backpay assurances that federal employees receive.
The Bucks County lawmaker’s support for the measure comes as Fitzpatrick and other moderate Republicans are trying to broker a deal with Democrats in Washington to end the shutdown, something leaders in both parties seem far away from.
The bill is unlikely to advance in the GOP-controlled House with no other party support.
But Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent who has worked as an agent during a shutdown, told The Inquirer he’d sign onto any bill that guarantees backpay to furloughed federal workers.
“Federal workers should never be used as pawns in policy disputes,” he said in an interview. “These are people that are largely living paycheck to paycheck. They have families they have to feed their families, they have bills to pay, and they should not get caught up in the gridlock of hyper partisanship.”
Fitzpatrick’s comments stand in stark contrast to those of President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday said some federal workers “don’t deserve to be taken care of” as he continues to threaten mass layoffs and blames Democrats for shutdown pains.
The top lawyer at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) argued in a draft memo this week that furloughed workers won’t be guaranteed back pay despite a the law Congress passed and Trump signed in 2019 that guaranteed such reimbursements.
Fitzpatrick, who said he “had not seen the OMB reference,” reiterated workers “should not be punished” for dysfunction in Washington.
“It’s not their fault. Why, pray tell, would we ever punish a federal worker who has absolutely nothing to do with the policy dispute that’s going on here?”
Fitzpatrick, who is up for reelection next year and represents one of the most tightly politically divided districts in the country, has a record of bipartisan votes and subtly pushing back on party leadership and Trump. He was one of just two House Republicans to vote against Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which he said he opposed because of cuts to Medicaid that went further than in a previous version, which he supported.
Those cuts have been at the center of the shutdown standoff as Democrats press to reverse the cuts and extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.
His critics have argued his independent moments are largely symbolic and without much political consequence as his votes have yet to sink any key GOP legislation.
Fitzpatrick opposes Democrats’ budget proposal
Fitzpatrick joined his Republican colleagues in the House in voting for a continuing resolution last month to fund the government, a measure most House Democrats opposed. Fitzpatrick said he continues to oppose the Democrats’ push for a continuing resolution that includes extensions for ACA tax credits.
The Bucks County Republican said he supports tax credit extensions, which would prevent higher monthly healthcare premiums for consumers. He opposes, he said, holding “hostage” government funding in the name of a specific policy.
“I’m concerned about setting that new precedent that we’re now going to threaten to shut the government down over policy provisions,” Fitzpatrick said, adding, “We can reopen the government and take this up.”
Fitzpatrick is working with the Problem Solvers Caucus a bipartisan group of moderate members of Congress, on a compromise that would result in a funding bill and a firm commitment to a tax credit extension bill to the floor before Nov. 1 when open enrollment for state health insurance marketplaces begins, he said.
Democratic leadership has thus far showed little willingness to accept such a proposal. And Republican leaders do not seem inclined to bend to the Democrats’ demands to combine the healthcare package with a government funding package.
The Senate took a sixth vote on the Republican funding bill Wednesday and all but three Democratic caucus members, Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) among them, voted against it.
Republicans have appeared more open to negotiating on the subsidies in recent days, amid ongoing reports of surging increases in healthcare costs and Democratic criticism for canceled votes on the issue. The House has not been in session since Sept. 19 when it passed the GOP government funding bill that has stalled in the Senate.
Fitzpatrick said he thinks leaders on both political sides have painted “themselves into a corner” when asked about that criticism. He said he was having frequent conversations with Democrats in the Problem Solvers caucus, which began working on a healthcare subsidy extension plan before the shutdown.
“I can’t speak for leadership but we’re all talking to each other … Leadership does their own thing for their own reasons,” Fitzpatrick said. “We like to think of ourselves as the adults in the room who are trying, you know, keeping the conversations going.”
But tensions clearly remain high. A co-chair of the Problem Solvers, New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, got into a testy public back-and-forth with House Speaker Hakim Jeffries (D., N.Y.) the same day Fitzpatrick spoke to The Inquirer.
Fitzpatrick is running next year to serve a sixth term and his likely Democratic opponent, Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie, has attacked him over the looming healthcare issue.
“Bucks and Montgomery families are opening letters right now warning them their healthcare premiums are about to skyrocket, and Brian Fitzpatrick is squarely to blame,” Harvie said in a statement last week.
“This is not some abstract debate in Washington – it’s real money, it’s real costs coming out of real people’s pockets. It’s happening because politicians like Fitzpatrick are running away – literally and figuratively– from their responsibility.”