A draft memo from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget argues that furloughed federal workers should not be paid for the time they didn’t work during the government shutdown.

The memo states that the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, which is supposed to guarantee furloughed workers back pay at the conclusion of any shutdown, has been misinterpreted. Specifically, the memo cites the line in the law that says back pay is “subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse.”

Mr. Trump signed the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act (GEFTA) in 2019 during the last government shutdown. GEFTA has been interpreted to guarantee furloughed workers get paid for not working during a shutdown.

The law states that “an excepted employee required to perform work during a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for such work, at the employee’s standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates.”

Before the law was passed, Congress had to approve measures to provide back pay for federal workers affected by the shutdown once lawmakers agreed to a funding package to reopen the government. Though Congress always voted to provide the pay, there was never a guarantee, so it created uncertainty for federal workers.

When asked if government workers would get back pay, Mr. Trump said it would depend “on who you’re talking about.”

“For the most part, we’re going to take care of our people. 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,” he said.

It is unclear how seriously the administration is considering raising questions about furloughed workers’ back pay or if the draft memo will become official. Any move to question workers’ back pay will likely be met with legal challenges from government employee labor unions.

The American Federation of Government Employees, a labor union that represents 820,000 federal workers, slammed the idea of withholding back pay.

“The frivolous argument that federal employees are not guaranteed back pay under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act is an obvious misinterpretation of the law. It is also inconsistent with the Trump administration’s own guidance from mere days ago, which clearly and correctly states that furloughed employees will receive retroactive pay for the time they were out of work as quickly as possible once the shutdown is over,” said AFGE President Everett Kelly.

Mr. Kelly was referring to guidance on the posted OMB website ahead of the shutdown. It states, “Employees who were furloughed as the result of the lapse will receive retroactive pay for those furlough periods.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said workers received back pay in past shutdowns, but there is “new legal analysis” raising questions about the law. He did not offer more details about the analysis.

“If that is true, that should turn up the urgency and the necessity of the Democrats to do the right thing here,” the speaker said.

“I hope the furloughed workers receive back pay. Of course, we have some extraordinary Americans who serve the federal government. They serve valiantly, and they work hard, and they serve in these various agencies, doing really important work. I can tell you, the president believes that as well.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Mr. Trump has “been torturing” federal employees with firings and threats since taking office.

“The law is clear: every single furloughed federal employee is entitled to back pay. Period, full stop. The law is clear, and we will make sure that that law is followed,” the New York Democrat said.

Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat who is the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, called the OMB memo a “baseless attempt to try and scare & intimidate workers by an administration run by crooks and cowards.”

“The letter of the law is as plain as can be – federal workers, including furloughed workers, are entitled to their backpay following a shutdown,” Ms. Murray wrote on X.

The Washington Times confirmed that OMB created the memo, which Axios first reported.

Roughly 750,000 federal workers have been furloughed during the shutdown, according to data from the Congressional Budget Office. Other workers are continuing to do their jobs, but working without pay until the government reopens.

Government employees will receive their first post-shutdown checks this week. The checks will be noticeably smaller since they only include pay for a few days before the Oct. 1 shutdown.

Last weekend, Mr. Trump told members of the U.S. Navy not to worry about delayed paychecks.

“I want you to know that despite the current Democrat-induced shutdown, we will get our service members every last penny,” he said at a U.S. Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia. “Do not worry about it. It’s all coming. It’s coming and even more.”

The military is required to work during the shutdown.

The administration has also been threatening mass layoffs of federal workers during the shutdown.

“We don’t want to see people laid off. But unfortunately, if this shutdown continues, layoffs are going to be an unfortunate consequence of that,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday.

• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.