Once again, it is federal employees who could take a hit because Uncle Sam can’t get his budget act together.
Temporary funding for the Department of Homeland Security expires Friday. If Congress and President Obama can’t agree on an appropriations bill by then, it will drape the agency in confusion.
But it won’t shut down, as DHS says, because about 85 percent of its employees would stay on the job.
What would shut down is the pay for all DHS staffers — more than 200,000 of them. Those who remain on the job would get paid eventually, but who knows when? The 15 percent facing furlough might get paid, but they can’t take “might” to the bank.