LETTERS: ABOUT THE SHUTDOWN

To the editor:

With the unbalanced budget and government shutdown looming again, I, as a retired federal employee, would like to enlighten readers about federal government language and policies.

All departments are different, but with my agency within the Department of Defense this is the procedure with a possible shutdown:

Essential employees are those involved with security, safety, health, lock operators and public welfare, and most of these would be skeleton crews. All other employees would be considered non-essential. Not once was my agency shut down, because the president at the time realized the wide-reaching implications of such an action.

I'd also like to mention that most private-sector companies work for the U.S. government, such as security, construction inspection, data processing, computer assistance and so on. Not to mention the construction contracts with the private sector. If their federal-government employer shuts down, they would most likely not get paid.

So don't think of non-essential federal employees as being useless or deadbeat. They just might have been the person who processed a lot of folks' paychecks.

ANN KYROLA

Perryville