The head of the largest federal employees’ union talked with top Democratic congressional leaders about his organization’s calls for Democrats to shore up the votes to end the government shutdown.
“I won’t get into individual conversations, but they’re very well aware of why I’ve taken the stance that I’ve taken,” AFGE president Everett Kelley said in an interview with POLITICO’s Dasha Burns.
He was responding to the question of whether he had spoken to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer or senior Hill Democrats about AFGE’s statement last week asking Democrats to pass the GOP-led government funding patch. The statement from the organization, which represents over 800,000 federal workers, made waves, and sparked speculation about whether Democrats were nearing a point where they would have to cave under the weight of mounting political pressure.
Rank-and-file senators are engaged in bipartisan talksin an effort to break the logjam but they won’t be able to come to any agreement before Congress breaks the record Tuesday evening for the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Senate Democrats are still seeking a deal on health care as a condition of lending their votes to reopen the government.
Schumer told reporters last week he’d told Kelley “we can do both,” referring to both the fight for health care and for federal workers.
Kelley demurred about whether his relationship with Schumer, Jeffries and others could be harmed by his union’s position.
“Hopefully we are still friends and we’re still allies,” he said.
