Union leaders say unpaid federal work and staffing gaps threaten inspections and worker stability in Minnesota

Union and state officials warned the Minnesota Senate Special Subcommittee on Federal Impacts that the 30‑day federal government shutdown is straining federal staff and the services they provide to Minnesotans.

"Employees could be accepted or partially accepted 1 day and furloughed the next," said Brian Garthwaite, president of AFGE Local 3381, describing how FDA consumer safety officers and support staff are compelled either to work without pay or be placed on furlough under the Anti‑Deficiency Act. He said the work includes domestic and international inspections, entry reviews at ports and recall coordination, and that prolonged lapses can reduce surveillance and delay removal of unsafe products.

Garthwaite said back pay is a statutory promissory right but cannot be used as immediate collateral, and warned employees sometimes wait 10 to 15 days or longer after a lapse to receive retroactive pay. "They wake up in the morning after a restless night full of worries still wanting to go to work," he added.

TSA officers and airport workforce leaders described parallel strains. "We're accepted employees. We go to work. We are hardworking Minnesotans. We show up. We have not collected a paycheck," Mark Johnson, president of AFGE Local 899, told the committee. He asked lawmakers to assemble a comprehensive list of statewide resources — daycare, housing, food and emergency cash — for affected workers.

Officials from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and the Board of Animal Health told the panel that state inspectors remain on the job but rely on cooperative federal partners for interstate inspection authority and incident response. "Our Minnesota Meat and Poultry Inspection Program operates with a federal match grant of up to 50% from USDA FSIS," Dr. Nicole Nasser, director of the dairy and meat inspection division, said. She said the state returned a signed cooperative agreement before Oct. 1 but had not received a signed, funded copy from USDA and is therefore operating on state funds alone for now.

Dr. Brian Hayes, state veterinarian and executive director of the Board of Animal Health, said Minnesota is the nation's leading turkey state and that a high number of highly pathogenic avian influenza cases are concentrated here. He told lawmakers the USDA contingency plan had been removed from public access and that federal veterinary staffing embedded in incident management teams has been reduced, creating "gray zones" in response coordination.

Committee members pressed agency witnesses on operational gaps and contingency planning. Senator McQuaid asked whether inspectors were being paid; Nasser said state‑funded inspectors were being paid, while federal counterparts working accepted emergency tasks were not receiving pay pending the end of the shutdown.

The subcommittee did not make policy decisions during the hearing; witnesses urged a rapid federal funding resolution and better federal–state coordination to avoid missed inspections and delayed outbreak response.

Next steps: the committee said it will continue hearings and county visits to track operational gaps and to compile resource lists for affected employees.