Bill Would Provide Interest-Free Loans to Federal Employees During Shutdown

Congressman TJ Cox (D-CA) introduced the Immediate Financial Relief for Federal Employees Act that would require the U.S. Treasury, at the request of the employee, to issue 0% interest loans to federal employees who have been impacted by the government shutdown.

According to Cox, the bill allows hundreds of thousands of workers across the country to immediately access funding to pay their bills and meet their financial obligations, and builds on the bipartisan bill passed last week through the House and Senate and was signed by President Trump that guarantees back pay for federal employees during the shutdown.

“This is a commonsense piece of legislation that would provide immediate relief to the hundreds of thousands of federal employees who are suffering from this unnecessary shutdown,” said Cox. “Right now, families in every neighborhood and zip code, are being forced to decide how to pay their mortgages, heating bills, put food on the table, or even ration medicine. We must do whatever we can to protect the workers who are paying the price for this Administration’s cruelty – and this legislation, common practice at businesses across the country, aims to do just that.”

Cox said the the Immediate Financial Relief for Federal Employees Act would:

• Gives federal employees a 0.0% APR loan of up to $6,000 at their request
• These loan would have no fees and accrue no interest, would not require a credit check, and the amount credited to the employee’s account would be automatically deducted once the government reopens and normal pay resumes.
• Loans would be issued by the Department of the Treasury, and a clause is included in the bill that would authorize USDT to issue these loans even if the agency is shut down.

The full text of the Immediate Financial Relief for Federal Employees Act is here.