UPDATE 2-IRS to furlough nearly half of its workforce due to US government shutdown

(Adds detail in paragraphs 5-9) By Courtney Rozen WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (Reuters) – The U.S. Internal Revenue Service will furlough more than 34,000 employees beginning on Wednesday due to the government shutdown, according to an agency statement, effectively shuttering taxpayer call centers. The furloughs amount to 46% of the agency's workforce. Call center employees, IT workers and most headquarters staff will be sent home, according to the statement. Employees assigned to carry out the tax and spending law that President Donald Trump signed in July will keep working. The IRS is sending home the employees because the U.S. Congress and Trump failed to reach an agreement last week on government spending. Services across the government have been disrupted because of the closures. The IRS said in a statement dated September 29 that it would furlough staff if the shutdown exceeded five business days. The closures began on October 1. In a letter to workers announcing the furlough, IRS official David Traynor wrote that a 2019 law requires agencies to give backpay to furloughed employees after the shutdown ends. That contradicts the Trump administration proposal from earlier this week, which argued that the same law doesn't make those payments automatic. Trump later suggested that not all furloughed employees should be paid when normal operations resume. Congress and Trump have so far failed to make a deal to end the shutdown. Democratic leaders want the agreement to extend healthcare subsidies for 24 million Americans who get their coverage through the Affordable Care Act. Separately, American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley on Wednesday morning called on Congress to pass a bill that reopens the government. He said that lawmakers and the president should debate healthcare later. AFGE represents 800,000 federal employees. "They should open the government today, whatever that entails," he said. (Reporting by Courtney Rozen; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Alistair Bell and Aurora Ellis)

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