House Rep. Robin Kelly, ranking member of the subcommittee of information technology, warned that the ongoing government shutdown might lead to challenges in attracting IT talent for federal agencies. The temporary closure of agencies expects to have “massive short-term impacts†on more than 800K federal workers, Kelly said in a statement posted Wednesday.
The democrat from Illinois’s 2nd congressional district also warned the shutdown adds to the factors that might discourage workers to enter the government. Kelly cited that as the government cannot compete on salary with the private sector, the chance of working without pay with the government might also lead IT talent away.
“How can we ever hope to recruit or maintain IT talent when hardworking government workers are told: ‘sorry, you aren’t getting paid, but you still need to come to work’ or ‘sorry, but no paycheck this week because of politics?’ Large private sector companies never say this to their employees and these are our competitors when it comes to IT talent recruitment,†she said.
Kelly called on Senate Leader Mitch McConnell to support the bills recently passed by House lawmakers to reopen the government.Â
