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NASA Is Back To Work, But the Effects of the Government Shutdown Linger (theverge.com)
Following a record 35-day government shutdown, thousands of civil servants and contractors are heading back to work this week at NASA's various centers throughout the country. "These first few days back on the job will be consumed with practical matters, such as figuring out employee backpay and how to dive back into projects," reports The Verge. "The shutdown will undoubtedly result in delays for some of NASA's long-term programs, too, but it'll be a while before the space agency can fully assess the extent of the damage." From the report: To explain how NASA is adjusting in the wake of the shutdown, the space agency's administrator Jim Bridenstine addressed employees during a town hall meeting this afternoon at NASA's headquarters in Washington, DC. "Welcome to 2019," he said during the meeting, which was live-streamed on NASATV. "NASA is now open and we're very thankful for that." The comment was met by applause from those in attendance, while Bridenstine went on to acknowledge that it's been a rough start to the year for the agency. "I want to say thank you for your patience and for your commitment to this agency and to the mission we all believe in so dearly."
Bridenstine told the room that some NASA employees did leave during the shutdown, though it wasn't a substantial amount. "We didn't have a mass exodus," he said. "I think had this gone on longer, we would have. But we did lose people -- onesies and twosies -- across the agency and even here at headquarters. That is absolutely true." Perhaps those hit hardest at NASA were the agency's contractors. [...] Each company funded by NASA has its own contract with the agency, and the provisions of those agreements differ from contract to contract. Some contractors were paid their funding in advance of the shutdown, allowing them to continue working mostly unfazed. However, the employees of contractors who did not receive funding in advance were unable to bill for the hours that they worked during the shutdown. And it's possible they'll never receive compensation for that time. "NASA is in the middle of selecting new planetary missions to pursue, as part of its New Frontiers and Discovery programs -- and the shutdown may have delayed that process, says Casey Dreier, chief advocate and senior space policy adviser at The Planetary Society," reports The Verge. "Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science, pushed back the date for when the agency would accept applications for new science research proposals. And there's uncertainty surrounding the new giant rocket NASA is working on to take astronauts to the Moon and beyond, called the Space Launch System." Boeing told Politico that the shutdown delayed testing of the rocket's hardware.
Bridenstine told the room that some NASA employees did leave during the shutdown, though it wasn't a substantial amount. "We didn't have a mass exodus," he said. "I think had this gone on longer, we would have. But we did lose people -- onesies and twosies -- across the agency and even here at headquarters. That is absolutely true." Perhaps those hit hardest at NASA were the agency's contractors. [...] Each company funded by NASA has its own contract with the agency, and the provisions of those agreements differ from contract to contract. Some contractors were paid their funding in advance of the shutdown, allowing them to continue working mostly unfazed. However, the employees of contractors who did not receive funding in advance were unable to bill for the hours that they worked during the shutdown. And it's possible they'll never receive compensation for that time. "NASA is in the middle of selecting new planetary missions to pursue, as part of its New Frontiers and Discovery programs -- and the shutdown may have delayed that process, says Casey Dreier, chief advocate and senior space policy adviser at The Planetary Society," reports The Verge. "Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science, pushed back the date for when the agency would accept applications for new science research proposals. And there's uncertainty surrounding the new giant rocket NASA is working on to take astronauts to the Moon and beyond, called the Space Launch System." Boeing told Politico that the shutdown delayed testing of the rocket's hardware.
You get free vacation and get back pay. Why would you want to quit that?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Everything was tip-top and humanity was on its way towards space dominance but then came the dreadful Government Shutdown of â18/â19 and all was lost. Forever.
China is doing far more launches than the us right now. US needs to catch up with China.
However, the employees of contractors who did not receive funding in advance were unable to bill for the hours that they worked during the shutdown. And it's possible they'll never receive compensation for that time.
Why would that be? They have a work order or a contract, and the proof that the work has been done. The contractor companies should deal with this anyway, not their employers, while the freelancers and independent consultants, if there are any, should be able to bill normally. Just a little later that usually.
during this (or any of the dozens of previous shutdowns) is too stupid to be working at such an agency anyway.
1. If you have been employed for over a year and have not yet set aside enough money to get by for a month, yet you have a smartphone or a new car, you are a fool. No job is guaranteed, and government jobs which are as close to guaranteed as possible, have a long history of experiencing shutdowns. Responsible adults maintain a personal/family "rainy day fund".
2. Banks and credit unions across the country offered no-interest loans to federal employees affected by the shutdown. This was an easy thing for them to do since the employees ALWAYS get their pay after the shutdown ends and so these financial institutions were only going to lose some interest and only for a few customers and for only weeks..... in exchange for great PR and customer loyalty.
3. Most Americans do not get an extra month of paid vacation near the holidays like this. These people are getting paid for that time, even though they did not show up and work.
4. Many institutions and groups of citizens were so moved by stories of hardship that they offered these government employees all sorts of free stuff.
Personally, I'd love to have a job that does shutdowns like this every couple of years. The strange bit is that you never see government employees fussing about private sector employees getting unemployed as the result of some government action.... and when THAT happens, the job loss is usually permanent and involves no back pay.
So go study Saturns ring spokes, how do they appear? why are they seasonal? what are they? optical? organizational? do they appear one at a time or all at once? do they appear suddenly or gradually? how do they disappear?
This has been a public service announcement to all the libtards of the world.
I've seen other articles say similar things such as furloughed govt employees will not be given backpay. This seems to me unethical at the least, and should be illegal.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
Cut taxes
Seriously you look like some snivelling lefty who spends his time screaming about 'her turn', 'communism good' and 'orange man bad'.
Nowadays I can't even tell if your type is a paid advocate, willingly misinformed or just a plain idiot.
...
So clearly, you're either ignorant or a liar. Either government employess were forced to come to work without pay (like the TSA), or they were furloughed, meaning they didn't go to work AND didn't get paid (like the IRS). In NO way was there any "extra month of paid vacation" for ANYBODY.
I laugh when media claim the US lost money with the shutdown. Does any gov agency make money? No, they provide services that the tax payers pay for through taxes. What surprises me is how many of these gov employee's laid off couldn't survive a month without pay? Talk about living pay check to pay check. In the end you can blame Congressional gridlock yet again for not being able to come to a agreement even in times of a complete crisis. This is truly embarrassing.
ISS Astro-Nots hanging on wires
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIy6dkOAaAI
I think that this is true for all of the agencies effected by the shutdown. I am a ham radio operator and I have been waiting forever for a license Administrative Update from the FCC to take effect. I moved just after the shutdown so my license still shows my old address and telephone number. When I woke up this morning, I had an email in my inbox informing me that the administrative update has been completed but I am unable to download a copy of the corrected license because the FCC ULS is down. Normally this would make me growl a little but this is just part of the start up so I should unpack my patience.
So clearly, you're either ignorant or a liar. Either government employess were forced to come to work without pay (like the TSA), or they were furloughed, meaning they didn't go to work AND didn't get paid (like the IRS). In NO way was there any "extra month of paid vacation" for ANYBODY.
This is a great example of "fake news". They'll all get back pay, nobody lost anything.
Do you have ESP?
And all the people planning on buying a car/house when the ACA doubled their insurance instead of dropping it by the promised $2500?
Oh yea, according to President Carter they are all racists if they point it out.
Typical government apologist. "Screw anyone else, its a national DISASTER to get paid 2 weeks late and as for all those killed by illegals, screw you. You should have been thrown into a woodchipper with high school kids because I bet you wore a red hat."
Yea, that's about how I see it. You leftists have lost ALL sympathy from me, especially when calling for the killing of kids for wearing red hats. Glad you had fun picking on kids, this one isn't going away and is even worse than Hillary calling half the country "deplorable".
Actually Congress passed a bill to pay all 800,000 workers regardless of whether they were forced to work or furloughed.
https://www.govexec.com/pay-be...
And contractors who had to come in are also paid as they were working (I was a contractor during the Gingrich shutdown back in the 90's and had to come to work).
The only ones likely not getting paid are the contractors that didn't go to work, which depends on the company as some would pay anyway or have their contractors work on other contracts, go to training, etc, and any of the support industry that depend on money from these workers.
[John]
Shit better not happen!
This is a great example of "fake news". They'll all get back pay, nobody lost anything.
Are you for or against the statement? The post by NoNonAlphaCharsHere is correct and is pointing out the "fake news" (#3) from the AC post. If you said the fake news is from NoNonAlphaCharsHere's post, you are the one who is trying to spread fake news. And it shows that you have neither worked nor had friends working for the government but rather want to spout completely wrong information to others, who don't know anything about how furlough works, in order to support your own agenda. However, if you agreed with NoNonAlphaCharsHere, then that's fine.
P.S. I have friends who work for government and either were furloughed or worked without pay during the period of shut down. They weren't affected in getting by during the time but they DID NOT have free month vacation as the AC said.
Contractors are either prepaid or postpaid.
Correct. The prepaid ones could work during the shutdown for as long as their contract continues. The post-paid ones could not: that would violate the anti-deficiency act, which says people can't do work for the government in anticipation of congress later deciding to pay them.
They do not work for free, billable hours will be billed.
Right. But it is ILLEGAL for them to bill hours if Congress has not authorized payment, so "do not work for free" translates to "do not work."
A contracting company HAS to pay their employees and agency contracts, even if they were temporarily unpaid are invoiced because the contracts say so.
Right. If they had a funded contract, they can continue working. It's only the ones that are on contracts that have not been funded that were a problem. (And the ones on contracts that were scheduled to be renewed after the new year, but the paperwork hadn't been completed yet).
It's one of the reason so many governments use contractors because they aren't counted as headcount and contracts cannot be affected by legislation.
Half right. Contractors indeed aren't counted as headcount, but my god no, contracts sure CAN be affected by legislation. In particular, if there is no funding, there is no contract.
The result is, some contractors continued working, because their contracts were already funded, and they could continue working until whenever the contract was up for renewal (nobody could renew it, of course: no funding for it, and no civil servants to do it.) Some contractors could not.
I'm pretty sure that all government agencies are facing the same problems why should NASA be any different
1. Because this is news for nerds, and nerds are interested in NASA, but less interested in, for example, Bureau of Indian Affairs.
2. Because there was a televised address to NASA employees by the NASA administrator, giving details. If there was a televised address by the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, I didn't hear about it.
this is a waste of an article
Only if you're not a nerd.
Contractors are either prepaid or postpaid.
Correct. The prepaid ones could work during the shutdown for as long as their contract continues.
I should have added "could work during the shutdown UNLESS their work required them to be on-site (like, say, the janitors and cafeteria workers), or their work required them to work with civil servants (like, say, the secretaries), or their work required individual oversight by civil servants (like, say, technicians working on experiments overseen by civil servants), or they worked on assigned individual tasks that were billed on a task by task basis (like, say, graphic artists)."
The Verge is a naive political blog funded by who? Look into it.
Dont tell the raving lunatic democrats that are modding themselves up in a giant circle jerk claiming the opposite
"His name was James Damore."
NASA was out of commission and no one even noticed. Remind me again why are we to be throwing twenty billion dollars of STOLEN tax money at these people with there shit record of failure after failure? I say DEFUND NASA and give the money to companies like boeng that ALWAYS do much better jobs without the liberal agenda.
For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion(operation of wandering)(planet) so that they will believe the lie.
Mystery Red of the Great American Eclipse
It has blood on it!
ABCNews: Eclipse makes pendulum wander
Winter Sunlight
For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion(operation of wandering)(planet) so that they will believe the lie.
Mystery Red of the Great American Eclipse
It has blood on it!
ABCNews: Eclipse makes pendulum wander
Is that red shadow light always there, or does it fade in as NatGeo and WashPost show? Is the color distribution consistent with the model?
Nat Geo Eclipse 101
A big complaint is NASA has too many old guys and yet here comes another obstacle to get young people. Though civil servants will get back pay, many contractors will not (contractors make up the bulk of the workforce). Bright fresh 20-somethings hired for many positions including not-so-glamorous work like networks, servers, databases, and other stuff but shutdown comes along some take that other offer. Of course many say nobody noticed NASA was shutdown so why does it matter. We may find 20 years from now other countries doing all kinds of stuff in space and a magazine article will have a picture of a US rocket (take your pick) lifting off the pad with a ball and chain around it like the 1990s article about the Russian space program that shows the Soyuz lifting off the pad with a ball and chain around it.
mfwright@batnet.com
Here a Kennedy Space Center, 11000 of the 13000 workers are contractors. Contractors do not receive backpay (although some of them could still work because their contracts were paid up). People seriously underestimate the size of the contractor workforce.
The employees still get screwed in a lot of cases, because most contracting companies don't have the resources to just pay all of their technical employees on indirect funds for 8% of the year (if they did it would mean that their overhead rates are too high), and just switching them to another actively funded contract probably screws over the customer on that active contract, because you can't just switch in a ton of temp workers for a month and expect to get a month of extra productivity.
Everything is proceeding exactly as planned. Enjoy your breadlines and mass shootings Americans!
Try the veal! /rimshot
"Listen... To... Fox! Listen... To... Fox!"
"Media... Are... Liars! Media... Are... Liars!"
"Listen... To... Fox! Listen... To... Fox!"
"Truth... Isn't... Truth! Truth... Isn't... Truth!"
In EVERY SINGLE SHUTDOWN IN US HISTORY the congress has voted to give back pay to ALL furloughed workers.
The workers who were ordered to show up and work without pay because they had critical jobs get their pay (it's only delayed for the duration of the shutdown).
The workers who stayed home get their pay - so, yeah, it's a paid vacation.
NOT ONE FEDERAL WORKER will be paid a single dollar less for the year because of the shutdown. Just as in all previous shutdowns, congress already passed and the president had already signed the law enabling the back payments while the shutdown was underway.
In the future, save yourself some humiliation and do not post about something you are clueless about, and which everybody can easily check with a couple of minutes of Googling.