Government Re-Opened, Federal Employees Called Back to Work Thursday

Congress voted Wednesday night to re-open the government and raise the debt limit, clearing the way for federal employees to return to work Thursday and avoiding a first-ever default.

The federal Office of Personnel Management said federal employees who have been furloughed since Oct. 1 should expect to return to work on Thursday.

The vote in the Senate was 81 to 18 and in the House of Representatives it was 285 to 144.

Rep. Ken Calvert, who represents Murrieta, Wildomar and Lake Elsinore, voted to re-open the government and avoid default, but Rep. Duncan Hunter, whose district includes Temecula, voted against. Both are Republicans, and a majority of Republicans in the House voted against the measure.

"Tonight I voted to avoid default and to maintain global confidence in the U.S. economy.  It was not an easy vote, but rejecting the Senate proposal would have meant asking the Obama Administration to handle a default situation," Calvert said in a statement.

"The President’s punitive actions during the government shutdown, such as barricading war memorials, left me with absolutely no confidence that he could manage a default responsibly and would in fact use the opportunity to further hurt our economy and the American people."

The Treasury Department said in a report to Congress earlier this month that a default “would be unprecedented and has the potential to be catastrophic,” causing a "recession that could echo the events of 2008 or worse.”