State employees return, civil emergency lifted
Gov. Paul LePage said all furloughed state employees are back to work and declared an end to the state’s civil emergency, which he called for amid a prolonged shutdown of the federal government.
The Associated Press reported that all workers who were temporarily laid off returned to work by Friday, with some back at work on Thursday. The shutdown of the federal government ended with a deal Congress reached late Wednesday.
The Portland Press Herald reported critics who doubted the necessity of the civil emergency said it lasted longer than necessary. LePage spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett told the paper that the extension of the emergency into Thursday served as an “administrative tool” to provide for an “orderly transition back to normal government operations.”
A civil emergency declaration allows the governor to suspend state rules or regulations that “prevent, hinder and delay effective management of the emergency.”
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