New Mexico's congressional offices open for business

Source: Albuquerque Journal, N.迷你倉M.Oct. 14--The federal government shutdown remains in effect with no apparent solution at the ready, but New Mexico's congressional offices in Washington and in New Mexico are open for business.When the shutdown began on Oct. 1, Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich both closed each of their six offices, including the ones in Washington, and furloughed about 75 percent of their staffs. But as of today, the offices are once-again fully staffed and open for business."Senator Udall is working hard to find consensus so we can re-open the government," said Udall spokeswoman Jennifer Talhelm. "He believes it is unconscionable that important federal agencies have had to shut their doors because of dysfunction in Washington. The House has passed a bill unanimously to pay federal workers furloughed through no fault of their own, and Senator Udall is a strong supporter of the bill. Negotiations in the Senate on the bill have been positive, and Tom believes it has a strong chance of passing the Senate and being signed into law. With that in mind, he believes that his staff should be working and helping New Mexicans to the best of their abilities, especially while other federal offices are unable to. "Whitney Potter, spokeswoman for Heinrich said legislation to restore pay to federal employees has passed the House and stands a good chance of passage in the Senate, which factored into his decision to bring his full staff back on the job. Congressional staffers are working but will not get paid unless Congress writes that into law."Though the offices will be open, the federalself storagegovernment will still be shutdown, which means there will be limitations on office operations," Potter said. "Having all staff return to work will provide needed help to the senator as he fulfills his responsibilities in D.C. and in New Mexico and continues his work to reopen the government."Senator Heinrich is a co-sponsor of the Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act, which is identical to the bill that passed the House last weekend. The Senate has yet to take up the legislation, but negotiations to do so are both ongoing and constructive. While the government shutdown continues and a resolution remains elusive, the events surrounding retroactive pay for all federal workers that transpired recently helped lead to the decision to open the Senator's offices."Given that this continues to be a fluid situation, scenarios exist where we could close the offices and have some staff go back into furlough status once again," Potter added.New Mexico's three U.S. House offices also are staffed and open for business this week. Sen. Steve Pearce initially furloughed his entire staff but brought most of them back on last week and re-opened his district offices and Washington. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham had planned to implement rotating furloughs for her staff, but is now fully staffed with all offices open. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., has kept his staff working and offices open since the beginning of the shutdown.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.) Visit the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.) at .abqjournal.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷利倉