I just heard this on ABC news about the Secret Service

[left-of-center2012]

Not only are they not being paid,
and they are required to work without pay,
ABC news said the Secret Service agents are now required to pay for their travel, lodging, meals, etc
out of their pocket due to the shutdown.

So ... Melania just flew to Florida.
I guess the Secret Service going with her will be paying for their own airfare, hotels, meals, etc?

And all other Secret Service agents around the country protecting Trump cronies?

[HipChick]

1. Hope they have huge credit lines on their credit cards..

Who. knows when they will get reimbursed for expenses....

[leftieNanner]

2. This makes me vomit!

And not just "a little bit in my mouth" as my usual response to Idiot 45.

So if Princess Ivanka wants to go on vacation, the SS detail has to pay their own way???

And how is Melania flying to Florida permitted during the shutdown?

[UpInArms]

3. So wrong in so many ways

Grrrrr

[roamer65]

4. Time for them to go on strike.

[ADX]

5. According to CNN, hotel and flight expenses for agents who are required to travel for protection...

...are paid for directly by the Secret Service. Any other expenses incurred on trips are paid out of pocket because travel vouchers aren't being processed, but the Secret Service is trying to work as best as it can with agents to make sure they are taken care of.

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. At the high end, they make around $75,000 plus other bonuses and Per Diem.

At that rate, in the DC area, you would have a bit of a commute and if you're a family man/woman doing that job, I wouldn't think there would be a whole lot of disposable cash.

https://work.chron.com/salaries-secret-service-agents-8297.html

[grantcart]

9. After 3 years they would be GS 12-1

That would be $ 80 K plus post adjustment.

With 20 years let's say 50 years old would be 13 - 7 or $110,000.

In addition SS in personal protection detail would get lots of overtime, probably above $ 36,000.

Federal LEO are usually hired at grade 9 and get a 2 grade bump after 1 year and another after one. After 3 years they are fast tracked to grade 12 and making close to 80K

[A HERETIC I AM]

12. So, given the housing costs of the DC area,...

my point isn't too out of whack, is it?

Even though I grew up in a household headed by a government employee who for many years when I was a kid, was stationed in DC, I really don't know what kind of income these days it would take to live in the homes of my youth, 20 miles from the White House.

[Ahpook]

25. I grew up in Reston in the 80's

I just checked home pricing in my old neighborhood. Half a mill for a 3 story row house that my folks probably paid a 100k for back then?

I had no idea! Wow..

[A HERETIC I AM]

28. Just checked Zillow on my old place outside Gaithersburg.

$429,000.


Dad bought it in 1967 for probably $25,000

[MontanaMama]

31. My parents had a house

near Herndon back in the late 70’s...it was $150,000. It’s a half million today according to Zillow. Sold last year for $499,000. It was just a run of the mill house...nothing special.

[Ahpook]

33. Herndon

OMG We would frequent Penguin Feather to grab records as well as the other goodies

Nice

[Ahpook]

32. Oh wow

I have no idea what they paid back then. Could have been cheaper than the 100k I posted. Just guessing

My dad was a gov't employee and Reston was a great place back then. I loved it!

On edit: My school was the infamous Terraset if you remember that? It was an underground school with solar panels for electric.

Reston was so cool

[MontanaMama]

34. My dad was a Federal employee too.

He worked for the Forest Service in Roslyn. I remember Terraset! It was way more cool than my school, as I recall. I only lived back there for 3 years...typical government employee thing for my dad. Once you got to a GS13 you could get out of DC. He wanted to get us back out west to finish high school and college where it was more affordable. I like to keep our house bookmarked on Zillow so I can see it every once in a while. I have great memories of living in Virginia.

[Ahpook]

36. Very cool

My brother still lives in DC.

Never pry him out of there

[TeamPooka]

37. I don't care if you're making 200K, carrying all your personal and business expenses while not

being paid is a hardship.

[grantcart]

38. Yes well my business was selling benefits to federal employees

And this is the third time in the last 15 months that it is closed and it kills my business for 3 months each time.

This time is unsurviveable and we have lost everything and had to move in with friends, my point being that at the bottom of the pile are the sub contract employees and others who will not be reimbursed.

Next are the TSA employees who are very poorly paid in the best of times and carry lots of debt. The TSA officers are not calling in sick and staying home, they are doing Uber and their second jobs that they are already doing to survive. I predict that the airports will have to close in 3-4 weeks because there will not be enough TSA agents still on the job. The other problem is that with the high turnover they will not be able to attract replacement officers because they can't pay them.

Next level up are the support staff who make less.

On top of the pile are federal LEOS who make good money but still are going to have to set up credit lines and be inconvenienced.

I have the largest federal LEO practice of my kind in the country and am sympathetic to their situation. For example Border Patrol agents work 10 hours but the 2 hours overtime are paid straight time.

My comment on the article was to point out that the entry level figures don't reflect their real compensation.

As to your comment, I agree it is unconscionable that federal LEOS are being treated this way but they are at the top of a much larger pyramid of suffering and there are hundreds of thousands who are under even more suffering, many who will never be able to make up what they have lost.

[TeamPooka]

39. and the ripple effect on people like you, the sub contractors, the local businesses, shops and

landlords etc
This whole thing could trigger something much bigger than Trump expected economically
But maybe thats what Putin has ordered him to do.
I'm sorry you have to suffer for this fools ego and weakness.

[grantcart]

41. It helps to marry a Buddhist who doesn't care about material things.

For me it's worth it if we get rid of Trump.

[onecaliberal]

7. How is this possible. What if they dont have the means to do that?

[allgood33]

8. The Women's March should March right up to the Senate and launch a protest against Mitch.

In DC and at Mitch's home state offices.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. Not just them - ANY government employee with a government credit card

who has been forced to work and their work requires travel/lodging - they will have to pay the bill themselves without any idea as to when they will be reimbursed. The credit card bills go directly to the employee (with a copy to their agency's admin office) and they are responsible for going through the travel reimbursement procedures (usually some sort of automated program like "Travel Manager", etc) to document the expenses and get reimbursed to pay the bill. But with no agency money, there's no immediate reimbursement to be expected, and if they miss the card payments, that will impact their credit rating.

[EffieBlack]

14. I posted a similar response before I saw yours

I agree with most of what you wrote, except late payments usually don't affect an employee's credit rating since the companies don't normally report late payments to credit bureaus.

[BumRushDaShow]

42. I am a 30+ year retired fed

who remembers the days before we had those cards.... We eventually went through 4 different card providers/agreements. And it depends on the agency. Most if not all have some sort of card suspension/pay garnishment policy in place for unpaid balances past a certain time frame (i.e., the card company will get paid regardless), however in their agreements/training, they warn employees about chronic late payments, where the card provider may report them to the credit bureaus.

[rurallib]

11. How could they possibly afford to stay at Mar-a-Lago?

good gawd

[EffieBlack]

15. They probably are paying the government rate

Or maybe not, given the owner ...

[EffieBlack]

13. I think what this is ...

Like many other government employees who travel frequently, Secret Service agents are issued a government travel card, which are used to charge airfare, hotels, meals and other expenses incurred on official travel. The agents are responsible for paying the credit card bills when they come due. But, because all of the travel is reimbursable and they also get a per diem, they simply submit their vouchers and, if they turn them in timely, they get their reimbursement in plenty of time to pay the credit card bill.

However, with the shutdown, employee vouchers aren't being processed, so they likely won't get their reimbursements in time to pay the bills.

The good news is that the companies that issue the cards will more than likely cut the employees a break and extend the grace period for paying their bills. And even when a bill is paid late, it's not reported to credit bureaus and doesn't negatively impact their credit rating - the penalty for too many late payments is a revocation of the card and, in really egregious caes, disciplinary action from the agency, which isn't very likely.

[dsc]

16. that seems a very odd system

Is that how companies do it too? As a teacher, on the very rare occasion that I get travel money I pay out and then get reimbursed. I never thought of this middle ground. Are these cards like Am Ex where you are expected to pay off monthly?

[EffieBlack]

18. Yes - they're due on receipt

It works kind of the same way as your system, but it substantially reduces fraud and abuse. Airlines and most hotels only honor the deeply discounted government fares when paid for with a government travel card, so it prevents people from claiming government rates they aren't entitled to. It also provides transparency since the agency has direct access to all of the charge activity by it's employees. It also protects employees from having to use their own credit cards for official travel - which can reduce their available credit and screw up their credit scores.

Companies vary in how they do this - I have worked for companies that operated similarly, issuing me a corporate card that I was responsible for paying.

[BumRushDaShow]

44. GSA/agencies go through multi-year contracts with credit card companies to provide to employees

The last one that I had before I retired was under "SmartPay2". They are moving to the newer contract "SmartPay3".

https://smartpay.gsa.gov/

Here is their FAQ regarding the shutdown - https://smartpay.gsa.gov/content/smart-bulletins-news-events#sa582

During my career, we had Diner's Club, Amex, USA Bank & JP Morgan MC/Visa before the SmartPay card (which had a selected bank). The worst (which had actually been our very first card after they phased out travel advances) was the Diner's Club because few places took that and many just laughed in our face when we handed them that. A number of times when on travel, we ended up charging the lodging on our own personal cards due to that issue.

This is what the last card I had looked like before I retired (and mine was a Visa) -

[hack89]

46. Most large companies do it that way

I have a company card. The military people I work with have government cards.

[erronis]

17. You have to wonder how that fits into the n-dimensional chess game that is being played

Some countries have a history of being good at chess, and others are good at crazy-8s.

Making sure all the vital services of your opponent are boxed in, rendered ineffective, is critical.

If there were to be a serious crisis to this country because of trump, would any (r) give-a-shit? Or are they expecting their next paychecks to be in roubles? (Good luck with that, comrade.)

[suegeo]

19. I hope the little lamb can recover

Maybe some R&R on one of her numerous yachts will help. Will her mercenary brother Erik send some flowers in support, or somehow fuck over/kill some poor people to brighten sis Betsy 's day?

[dhol82]

20. Just saw on MSNBC that she took a military plane

[tavernier]

21. Same one Pelosi was scheduled to take

to visit troops.

[dhol82]

24. Damn.

[NoMoreRepugs]

35. Wasn't it the same type of plane rather than thee plane?

[EffieBlack]

40. Different plane

[Calista241]

22. Melania took a military plane, so they would have hitched a ride.

[Autumn]

23. God. These people are disgusting.

[Honeycombe8]

26. I think the govt has a floor or something at Mar-a-Lago on a permanent basis.

The SS need a lot of rooms. I've read that in Trump Tower, they have an entire floor (paid by the govt to Trump). I would imagine it's similar in MAL. So they wouldn't have to pay for accommodations. Or probably food. There's probably a tab for the stay that is run & turned in later for payment. Just a guess.

SS aents fly with Melanie, don't they? They don't fly separately or commercial. That would defeat the purpose of having the SS go with her for her protection. So their flight would be paid for? The First Ladies don't fly commercial.

[EffieBlack]

27. Only her personal detail flies with her

Other agents fly out ahead on commercial flights to advance her trips wherever she goes. Same goes for Trump.

[Honeycombe8]

45. Oh, bummer for them. I guess they'd have to pay for that. nt

[GulfCoast66]

29. Ow we know why he is sitting put in the WH.

[backtoblue]

30. He's hoping they'll quit so he can hire Prince's private militia...

[Achilleaze]

43. Typical. The republican misleader* has a long history of cheating workers

* aka republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief

[pwb]

47. My guess they are not as alert as they could be?

Without pay who would be. Its a real kick in the face no matter how dedicated a person tries to be. Trump is endangering himself .