Governor LePage Thanks Maine State Employees

Civil Emergency no longer

AUGUSTA – Governor Paul R. LePage thanked Maine State employees today for their patience during the 16-day federal government shutdown. The Governor also announced today that the civil emergency has ended.

Used as an administrative tool, the civil emergency provided the Governor the flexibility to manage potential impacts on state services and programs that serve Maine citizens and to ensure an orderly transition back to normal government operations.

“I’m pleased that State government is back to normal and Mainers are back to work,” said Governor LePage. “I want to thank Maine State employees for their patience during these past couple weeks. This federal shutdown caused a tremendous amount of stress and uncertainty for everyone.”

Governor LePage used the authority provided by the declaration of civil emergency to lift the unemployment benefits work search requirement for federally funded state employees who were laid off as a result of the federal government shutdown. Additionally, the State Controller was identifying areas within agencies where workers could have been repurposed in order to maintain State programs and services had the shutdown continued into a third week.

Maine law enables the Governor to declare a civil emergency in the case of unexpected situations, such as a federal government shutdown, which significantly impacted incoming revenues to the State of Maine. More than 2,700 state employees are paid, either partially or entirely, by federal funding. There are also thousands of federally funded programs and services that Mainers rely upon, which could have been adversely affected in a prolonged shutdown.