Row Erupts After White House Says 'No Back Pay For Furloughed Federal Workers Amid Shutdown'

The White House has said that federal workers who have been suspended during the ongoing government shutdown are not entitled to back pay. The announcement has drawn criticisms from several senators.

Axios quoted the draft memo as stating that the White House’s office of management and budget (OMB) an amendment to the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act (GEFTA) of 2019 would not guarantee furloughed workers back pay and that said funds must be set aside by Congress.

“The legislation that ends the current lapse in appropriations must include express language appropriating funds for back pay for furloughed employees, or such payments cannot be made,” said Mark Paoletta, OMB’s general counsel, in a draft addressed to White House budget director

Russell Vought, the Washington Post reported.

When asked about the White House’s stance on back payment for federal workers, Trump said “it depends who we’re talking about”.

He further said that there was a plan to announce additional government programs that will be permanently eliminated as the shutdown continues as well as possible layoffs, CNN reported.

In response, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that federal workers affected by the shutdown should receive back pay, but noted that “some legal analysts [are] saying that [back payments] may not be appropriate or necessary, in terms of the law requiring that back pay be provided”.

Meanwhile, Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland has said any suggestion of withheld back pay is “more fear mongering from a president who wants a blank check for lawlessness”.

“They’re plotting to try and rob furloughed federal workers of backpay at the end of this shutdown,” said Senator Patty Murray of Washington, a top Democrat on the Senate appropriations committee.

The Guardian quoted Congressman Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who represents many federal workers, as saying that furloughed federal employees may not be entitled to back pay after a government shutdown ends.

“All federal employees are legally entitled to back pay when the government reopens after a shutdown. I know this because in 2019, I helped pass the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act which made this a requirement. Donald Trump knows this, too—he signed it into law,” he said.

“Now, as the White House reverses course, the president is threatening to deliberately violate the law; or he is suffering from a debilitating case of legislative amnesia. Either way, he should refresh his memory on the law he signed. And if he chooses to barrel forward anyway, he should get ready for a fight in court,” the Maryland congressman continued.

“The President has no right to just pay the federal workers in his own political camp. That’s a violation of the law and of the First Amendment,” he added.

According to The Washington Post, an estimated 750,000 federal workers have been furloughed during the federal government shutdown, now in its seventh day.