Government shutdown 2019: Delaware federal court employees will work without pay after next week

The U.S. judiciary has enough money amid the partial federal government shutdown to operate as normal until next Friday, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

After that, all employees at Delaware's federal courthouse and bankruptcy court in Wilmington will be considered "essential" to government functions and will be required to work without pay until the shutdown ends. 

Those include judges and their staffs, court clerks, probation officers and the federal public defender's office.

Georgetown farm service office to open for limited services amid shutdown

Operations that are deemed particular priorities include trials, sentencing hearings and other proceedings related to criminal defendants' liberty, and clerk's office operations such as the processing of case filings and court fees. 

Court employees will be paid for work through Jan. 25, after which the shutdown plan begins.

Jury trials will continue and jurors will be paid their regular fee, but those payments may be delayed until the government reopens with regular funding.

The plan is a one-week extension of the court's original shutdown plan, in which funding would have run out this Friday.

February food stamps to come early amid government shutdown

During the shutdown, federal courts have been operating on court fees and other funds, according to the Administrative Office.

"Courts and federal public defender offices have delayed or deferred non-mission critical expenses, such as new hires, non-case related travel, and certain contracts," an Administrative Office statement said.

Those cost-cutting measures have allowed the courts the extra week of funding.

U.S. attorneys, who are part of the Department of Justice, have either been furloughed or directed to work without pay, according to the department's shutdown plan.

'I just want to get back to work,' Delaware federal workers speak out

Priority has been given to criminal cases, though the Delaware court's shutdown plan notes civil proceedings will also continue. U.S. Marshals, according to the plan, are also working to protect judges and transport inmates.

"It's really gut-wrenching to see this playing out every day," an administrative employee in the courthouse wrote in an email to the News Journal. "People will be coming to work, as ordered by the court, and have to pay for parking and daycare, while not getting a paycheck."

Parking is $12 a day at the courthouse, the employee noted. 

The employee asked her name be withheld over fear of violating federal rules about employees making political statements. Many fellow employees, she said, have young children or children in college, and live paycheck to paycheck.

"The mood is very somber" in the courthouse, she said. "Most people are not in support of the wall or being held hostage by the shutdown."

Contact Jeanne Kuang at jkuang@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2476. Follow her on Twitter at @JeanneKuang.