Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.) on Tuesday strongly criticized the White House budget office for circulating a draft memo indicating that furloughed federal workers may not automatically receive back pay when the government eventually reopens.
“I think it’s a horrible message to send to people who are basically hostages right now to the Democrats shutting down the government, not agreeing to a clean [continuing resolution],” Tillis told reporters. “I think it’s bad strategy.”
Tillis said the threat sends the wrong message to federal workers, who have been furloughed since Wednesday and may need to borrow money just to pay their bills.
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“I do think there’s some frustration from the White House but you’ve got these people who if they’re members of the credit union who may be borrowing money to pay their bills. Not everybody can draw out of retirement savings or something,” he said.
“We don’t have to go that far. Let’s focus on the real issue of the Democrats not having a rational basis” for shutting down the government and playing to the most liberal wing of their party, he said.
“We’re not asking them for anything more than just funding at levels that they voted for in the past,” Tillis said.
The draft memo circulated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) uses an unusual reading of the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 to argue that only federal workers deemed essential employees are automatically due back pay.
It cites a line in the law that states furloughed workers will receive pack pay “subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) on Tuesday called the memo “an attempt at intimidation.”
“This is nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government. These unnecessary firings will either be overturned in court or the administration will end up hiring the workers back, just like they did as recently as today,” he said.