State Department diplomats called back to work, for now
Source: Washington Post
The State Department is calling back its furloughed diplomats next week after shifting money to payroll from other accounts, but the returning employees will still have to wait to get their retroactive pay, officials said Thursday.
The decision to recall diplomats was announced by Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan during a luncheon for more than 180 ambassadors attending an annual conference. He received what one official described as two "rousing" rounds of applause.
Officials said a review of the State Department's various accounts came up with enough money to pay half a month of payroll. Beyond that, officials cautioned they will have to see if they can identify other funds that can be tapped should the shutdown extend beyond that.
Though the number of furloughed employees has shifted from week to week, currently 40 percent of the 14,500 working in the United States are furloughed, as are 23 percent of 9,500 working overseas.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/state-department-diplomats-called-back-to-work-for-now/2019/01/17/d2d4c310-1a84-11e9-88fe-f9f77a3bcb6c_story.html
[div class"excerpt"]"after shifting money to payroll from other accounts"
You can't just "shift money to payroll" unless those people are working in those areas that congress designated the funds to be used for - and more specifically, the funds can't come from "BA" (budget authority" ) pots.
The reporter probably has no idea what the financial folks are doing either so that doesn't help.
= new reply since forum marked as read
