A Vermont Democrat had to issue an apology Tuesday after he totally ignored the history of slavery in the U.S. in an effort to promote his bill banning federal workers from working without pay due to the partial government shutdown, Fox News informed.
“Never in the history of this country has it been legal to make people work for free,” U.S. Rep. Peter Welch wrote in a tweet, “but that’s what’s happening to federal employees. This can never happen again.”
The comment was immediately bashed by the public that reminded him of the nation’s history with slavery, forcing Welch to apologize for this remarks. However, the lawmaker did not delete the original tweet.
“Sincere apologies,” Welch wrote in his apology on Twitter. “Nothing worse in the history of our country than the brutal inhumanity of the horrible, relentless, and savage infliction of involuntary servitude-slavery- on millions of people whose freedom was denied.”
In his first tweet, Welch attempted to gain support for his bill under which it would be illegal for federal workers to do their jobs without pay during government shutdowns.
Since the shutdown started on Dec. 22, a huge number of federal employees have either been furloughed or have been working without pay. While workers are currently not receiving their paychecks, all federal workers should get back pay after the funding bill is adopted.
According to different estimates, around 400,000 federal workers are working without pay because of the shutdown, while around 350,000 are furloughed.
It is still not clear when the government is set to be reopened as the standoff between the congressional Democrats and President Donald Trump continues. Trump demanded $5.7 billion as funds for his campaign promise to build a border wall, but Democrats rejected this request.
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