WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration warned Tuesday of no guaranteed payback for federal workers during a government shutdown, reversing longstanding policy for about 750,000 furloughed employees, according to a memo distributed by the White House.
Trump signed a law after the longest government shutdown in 2019 that ensures federal employees receive back pay in the event of a loss of federal funding. But in the recent memo, his Office of Management and Budget says Congress will have to make back payments if it wants to as part of a bill to fund the government.
The Republican administration’s move was widely seen as a tactic – a way to pressure lawmakers to reopen the government, now in the seventh day of a federal shutdown.
“This should drive home the urgency and need for Democrats to do the right thing here,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a news conference at the Capitol.
Johnson, an attorney, said he had not read the memo in its entirety, but “some legal analysts say” it may not be necessary or appropriate to pay compensation to federal workers.
Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington described the Trump administration as violating the law.
“Another baseless attempt to intimidate and intimidate workers by a government run by crooks and cowards,” said Murray, the ranking lawmaker on the Senate Appropriations Committee. “The language of the law is as clear as can be: federal employees, including furloughed workers, are entitled to their back pay following a shutdown.”
Refusing to pay retroactively to workers, some of whom must remain employed as indispensable workers, would be a significant departure from norms and practices and would almost certainly result in legal action.
While federal employees — as well as military personnel — have often missed paychecks during past shutdowns, they will be reimbursed in most cases once the government reopens.
In a one-page memo from Trump’s Office of Management and Budget under Russ Vought, first published by Axios, the office’s general counsel attempts to lay out a legal rationale for not having back pay for federal workers.
The memo explains that while the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 states that workers should be paid after federal funding is restored, it argues that the measure is not self-enforcing. Instead, the memo says, repaying federal employees would have to be part of legislation to reopen the government.
The OMB analysis, using language familiar to budget experts, suggests that the 2019 bill created authority to pay federal employees, not the actual allocation of funds.
Congress could decide whether it wanted to pay the workers or not.
Congress remains hushed for now, and neither side — nor the White House — appears willing to budge. Democrats are fighting for health care funds to prevent a loss of federal subsidies that threaten to send insurance premiums skyrocketing. Republicans say the issue can be resolved later.
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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Joey Cappelletti and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
