Skip to content

Essential Senate GOP Staffer to Fellow Republicans: Let’s Avoid a Shutdown

Apparently the Senate administrative director’s Listserv got a little sassy Thursday morning, with Sen. Susan Collins’ administrative director telling Sen. David Vitter’s administrative director that her office’s priority should be to avoid a government shutdown, not determine who is nonessential staff.

Multiple sources of both parties (laughs are bipartisan!) sent this exchange HOH’s way, and it is awesome. If we can’t laugh at the upcoming tedium of being at the Capitol at all hours for days on end as a government shutdown looms, what can we laugh at?

From: Dyer, Julie (Vitter)
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2013 9:31 AM
To: ADMGR@LISTSERV.SENATE.GOV
Reply To: Dyer, Julie (Vitter)

Subject: Gov. shutdown

Would anyone mind sharing which staff they’ve designated as “essential” in past years of potential government shutdown? Any other advance preparations your office has made? Thanks!

From: Burita, Jen (Collins) [mailto:Jen_Burita@COLLINS.SENATE.GOV]
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2013 11:59 AM
To: ADMGR@LISTSERV.SENATE.GOV
Subject: Re: Gov. shutdown

We prefer to avoid a government shut down and hope we can all work together on that end.

such

Recent Stories

Former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, first woman on the Supreme Court, dies at 93

Members want $26 billion for programs the Pentagon didn’t seek

Expelling bee — Congressional Hits and Misses

Appeals court rejects Trump push to dismiss Jan. 6 suits from lawmakers, police

Photos of the week ending December 1, 2023

House expels Rep. George Santos