White House threatens to not pay workers furloughed during government shutdown

The White House is considering not paying federal employees for days they have been furloughed during the shutdown, according to a person familiar with the matter, a move that could run afoul of a law that mandates workers get backpay once the government re-opens.

The White House’s Budget Office led by Russell Vought has drafted a memo that says the workers aren’t guaranteed compensation during the shutdown, a posture that raises the stakes in the confrontation with Democrats nearly a week after agencies and departments suspended non-essential operations.

The memo lays out a legal argument that the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 — passed after the shutdown in President Donald Trump’s first term to codify paying federal workers once a shutdown ends — is deficient.

Axios, which reported earlier on the memo, said some White House officials believe an amendment to the law allows leeway over whether or not to provide backpay to government workers. Democrats quickly refuted the memo.

“I think the law is clear,” Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, told CNN Tuesday. “These federal workers will have their paycheck delayed, but if the Trump administration is now arguing that they’re going to eliminate the paychecks of those who are furloughed, that is an outrage. It is a violation of the law.”

On Monday, Trump, who had stayed on the sidelines of the fray for days, said he was open to negotiating with Democrats over health care subsidies to bring an end to the funding standoff.

A short time later, however, he wrote in a social media post that “I am happy to work with the Democrats on their Failed Healthcare Policies, or anything else, but first they must allow our Government to re-open.”

The president has repeatedly said that he would use the shutdown to fire thousands more federal workers, who are normally furloughed during government closures and brought back when they end. But he was vague on the timeline for any job cuts Monday, just saying that “at some point” it will trigger layoffs.

Trump’s apparent willingness to open negotiations unfolded as federal workers miss paychecks and opinion polls indicate that voters are more likely to blame Republicans for the funding lapse.