President Donald Trump warned Tuesday that some furloughed federal employees could be left without back pay when the government finally reopens.
Around 750,000 government employees have not been working since the Senate failed to pass a temporary funding bill last week. When asked whether these employees would all receive back pay after the end of the government shutdown, Trump said that “it depends” on the federal worker.
“I would say it depends on who we’re talking about. I can tell you this, the Democrats have put a lot of people in great risk and jeopardy, but it really depends on who you’re talking about, but for the most part we’re going to take care of our people,” Trump told reporters. “There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of and we’ll take care of them in a different way.”
Trump’s remarks follow reports that the Office of Management and Budget drafted a memo making the legal case that furloughed workers aren’t automatically guaranteed back pay. The memo analyzed the ”Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019,” which stipulated that all federal workers furloughed after December 18, 2018, due to a lack of government funding should “be compensated for the period of the lapse.”
According to Axios, the memo argues that furloughed workers can only receive back pay if Congress includes the money for it in the bill that ends the shutdown. Furloughed workers hold nonessential positions and are sent home when the government shuts down. The Trump administration says that those who continue working during shutdowns, considered “essential” workers like air traffic controllers, should still receive pay once funding is restored.
“Does this law cover all these furloughed employees automatically? The conventional wisdom is: Yes, it does. Our view is: No, it doesn’t,” another senior official added.
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Republicans are pushing for a short-term funding bill that continues funding at the same levels as the previous year, while Democrats have pushed for spending increases.
“This would not have happened if Democrats voted for the clean [continuing resolution],” a senior administration official told Axios.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) stated that he wanted furloughed employees to receive back pay, but this was not a position with which everyone agreed.
“There are legal analysts who think that that is not something that government should do,” he said. “If that is true, that should turn up the urgency and the necessity of the Democrats doing the right thing here.”
The Trump administration has previously floated the possibility of using the shutdown to implement mass firings rather than layoffs. Those layoffs have not yet been carried out, but the Office of Management and Budget has instructed department heads to prepare to reduce their workforce as much as possible.