The expected furlough of more than 13,000 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees — 1,109 in Vermont — has been delayed following pressure from Congress.
Sen. Patrick Leahy announced Friday that USCIS Acting Director Joseph Edlow gave “assurances” the furloughs would be postponed, after Leahy and the Senate Appropriations Committee uncovered a $121 million surplus in the agency’s budget for the current fiscal year, despite the agency claiming it was out of money.
Union officials joined Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and representatives from the offices of Leahy, D-Vt., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., outside the USCIS service center in St. Albans Wednesday to urge USCIS to use the surplus to avoid the furloughs.
For weeks now, Leahy has repeatedly called on both the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees USCIS, as well as Republicans in Congress and the White House to stop the furloughs or pass emergency funding for the agency.
“Furloughing thousands of public servants in the middle of a pandemic and at record unemployment would have upended the lives of the dedicated women and men working at USCIS and impacted thousands who rely on their services, and after new revenue estimates showed the agency ending the fiscal year with a surplus it was completely unjustifiable,” Leahy said in a statement to media. “I’m glad the agency decided to change course for now, but I remain troubled the Trump Administration was pushing for these furloughs in the first place.”
The agency alerted Congress May 15 of the projected budgetary shortfall, which the agency says is tied to a decrease in revenues associated with fees applicants pay to the agency.
On Wednesday Rep. Welch decried the potential cuts as “terrible.”
“Plainly stated, these furloughs would be a terrible catastrophe for every single worker and their families,” Welch said. “This would be devastating for these families in Franklin, in Chittenden County. Absolutely devastating. And how can we turn our back on folks who have been loyal public servants for so many years.”
In a statement to VTDigger, USCIS Spokesperson Jessica Collins said Wednesday that the agency wouldn’t commit to preventing the furloughs until Congress approved emergency funding for the 2021 fiscal year.
“In order to delay a furlough, we would need a commitment from Congress to fund USCIS, either through passing legislation or indicating that legislation is forthcoming which would meet our ultimate goal of canceling the furlough once we receive funding,” she said.
The furloughs will now be delayed until Aug. 30 as Congress continues to work on securing funding for the agency, Collins said in a statement Friday.
“Recent assurances from Congress, and an uptick in application and petition receipts, have allowed USCIS senior leadership the flexibility to responsibly delay the start date of the administrative furlough of approximately 13,400 USCIS employees until Aug. 30,” Collins said. “This delay is intended to allow Congress enough time to act and provide USCIS with the funding needed in order to avert the administrative furlough all together. USCIS’s funding request of $1.2 billion remains unchanged and the agency is depending on Congress to provide emergency funding to ensure agency operations continue uninterrupted.”
Leahy and Welch said they’ll continue to work on securing the emergency funding the agency will need this upcoming fiscal year to ensure Vermonters are not furloughed.
“I am working to ensure these dedicated women and men stay on the job to help those chasing the American Dream,” said Leahy, who is vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“With regard to the projected USCIS deficit for the fiscal year 2021, I am committed to addressing this issue in the next coronavirus supplemental so that USCIS can continue accomplishing its missions without a furlough,” he said.
Welch said Wednesday that bipartisan legislation he’s cosponsoring has been introduced, but the House is attempting to negotiate coverage for the 2021 fiscal year into the next COVID-19 spending bill.
