Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, who represents the 8th District of Virginia that includes the City of Falls Church and Republican Rep. Rob Wittman distributed a letter to U.S. House colleagues Tuesday to build support for the Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act. The bipartisan proposal has already collected 24 cosponsors, including Republican U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock of the 10th District of Virginia, ahead of its introduction next week to protect federal worker pay in the event of a shutdown.

“Our federal employees work every day to carry out vital missions keeping our country healthy, safe, and strong,” said Rep. Beyer in a statement this week. “Their pay, and their family’s well-being, should not be in jeopardy because Congress failed to do its job again. I hope my colleagues on Capitol Hill empathize with the anguish these funding battles cause hard-working American families.” Federal employee pay is suspended in the event of a funding lapse or government shutdown. Retroactive pay for all “essential” and “non-essential” federal workers must be approved by Congress.

“Consistency and certainty in government funding is critical for our federal employees to carry out the vital missions with which they’ve been tasked,” said Rep. Wittman. “Congress’ unfortunate tendency to govern by crisis stymies the efforts of these dedicated public servants. I will fight to minimize the impacts of this funding uncertainty on the well-being of our federal workers and their families, while also working to return Congress to a regular schedule of budgeting and passing appropriations bills.”