Almost all federal agenciesinsist that employees put work credit cards in their own names andpay the bills themselves, with reimbursement later. (Photo:Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) –As if going without pay during the month-longpartial government shutdown isn't enough, thousands offederal workers are dealing with anotherfinancial indignity: servicing debt on government-issued creditcards.

They are receiving credit card bills — for which they arepersonally responsible — for work-related expenses they incurredbefore the shutdown, but can't get reimbursed becausetheir agencies are mostly closed and funds are frozen.

“It's just crazy what we're having to put up with,” said MichaelGonzales, a regional vice president of the Professional AviationSafety Specialists union. “Something has to be done here. It's justbizarre.”

JPMorgan Chase & Co., one of several companies issuinggovernment credit cards, will shield employees from downgrades totheir credit scores for late payments, said spokesman ThomasKelly.

“We don't charge late fees or interest on those cards, and havebeen telling that to the employees,” Kelly said. “We alsohave told them to pay us once they get reimbursed.”

That's consistent with the agreement issuers have with thegovernment but it hasn't eliminated the concerns of Gonzales'smembers. Some of his members, aviation safety inspectors who areoften required to travel for work, don't have the savings to paythe bills, he said.

The number of federal employees who have received such bills atshuttered agencies probably numbers in the tens of thousands, saidan official with the American Federation of Government Employeesunion who asked not to be named because he wasn't authorized tospeak about the issue.

Almost all agencies now insist that employees put work creditcards in their own names and pay the bills themselves.

One Federal Aviation Administration air-traffic controller saidhe had recently paid a $2,000 bill for government travel because hefeared he could run afoul of agency and bank rules. The controller,who asked not to be named because agency rules prohibit him fromspeaking to the media, said he doesn't know when he'll bereimbursed for the money.

More than a dozen major departments and agencies are withoutfunds and have mostly sent employees home on furlough since Dec. 22as a result of a dispute over whether to fund a wall on the borderwith Mexico.

In some cases, such as Transportation Security Administrationairport screeners, employees have been declared essential and arebeing told to report for work without pay.

Attempts to reach officials with the General ServicesAdministration, which helped set up the federal worker credit cardsystem, were unsuccessful. The GSA is one of the agencies that isshut down.

While no data is available on the total government-employeecredit card balances since the shutdown began, government datasuggests it could total many millions of dollars. Across all ofgovernment, employees spent an average of $673 million a month ontravel-related purposes in 2016, according to GSA.

Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank and US Bankcorp's US Bank also issuecards under the program, according to GSA's website.

Bank agreements

The banks are required to have a plan for a government shutdownunder their contracts. It requires that employees “shall not beassessed finance charges, aged delinquent, suspended, or canceledby the contractor during the government-wide shutdown,” GSA said onits website.

In spite of those assurances, employees at multiple agenciesinterviewed by Bloomberg reported they'd been given a variety ofsometimes contradictory guidance, or no guidance at all, on how tohandle the expense bills.

At the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the TSAthat monitors airport security at scores of airports across thecountry, employees believe they are responsible for paying thebills even though they can't be reimbursed until after theshutdown, said one official.

At a division of the FAA that oversees aircraft manufacturerssuch as Boeing Co., whose employees must frequently travel to U.S.and overseas locations, the agency was able to find money toreimburse several people who had been on trips shortly before theshutdown, said Scott Odle, head of the local union representing theworkforce.

However, as some of those employees have begun to be recalledwithout pay, new questions are arising about how the agency willreimburse them for travel incurred during the shutdown, said Odle.He represents about 700 people under the umbrella of the NationalAir Traffic Controllers Association union.

FAA managers have arranged for the agency to pay directly forlarge expenses, such as airfare and hotel bills, so employeesaren't liable on their personal cards, he said. However, it's notclear how smaller incidental charges will be handled.

“That doesn't eliminate every charge that goes on the employee'scard,” he said.

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