They didn't want to risk that having people furloughed for more than 30 days might give Trump authority to order permanent Reductions In Force. Even a two week return to work restarts the clock.
it will be interesting to see, in the next week, how many depts. come up with ‘found’ money they had squirreled away while crying poor for budget purposes. Or if this ‘found money’ had any relation to the McConnell courts Pompeo rumors.
You are right on target.
I have extended family in the State Dept and he was always talking about three things.
How dumb Ambassadors were.
How he had lifetime employment.
How the private sector was so over paid.
He retired with a 100k pension plus Social Security.
He had free housing during his travels overseas.