Furloughed Federal Workers Not Guaranteed Back Pay After Government Shutdown, Says White House — Points To 2019 Law Signed By Trump
Furloughed federal workers are not guaranteed compensation for their forced time off during the ongoing shutdown, according to a draft White House memo that reinterprets a 2019 back-pay law, Axios reported, raising new uncertainty for hundreds of thousands of employees.
New OMB Memo Challenges 2019 Back-Pay Guarantees
According to the report, the issue at hand is the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, which Congress passed during the record 35-day shutdown and has been widely understood to ensure automatic back pay once the shutdown ends.
The Office of Management and Budget’s new analysis says that understanding is wrong, pointing to statutory language, now codified at 31 U.S.C. §1341(c), that pay is due “at the earliest date possible after the lapse … ends … and subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse.”
A senior White House official, in a statement to Axios, put it bluntly, stating, “Does this law cover all these furloughed employees automatically? The conventional wisdom is: Yes, it does. Our view is: No, it doesn’t.”
Potential Impact And Break With Prior Guidance
If acted upon, the shift would intensify pressure on Senate Democrats by denying back pay to as many as 700,000 workers after the shutdown, according to Reuters.
The position marks a sharp break with recent guidance from within the administration. OPM’s Sept. 28 shutdown memo told agencies that both “excepted and furloughed employees will receive retroactive pay” once the lapse ends. Government Executive separately reported on Tuesday that OMB has quietly removed references to guaranteed back pay from its public guidance last week.
Unions Push Back Amid Broader Shutdown Strategy
Unions and employment lawyers argue the White House is misreading Congress’s intent. Federal News Network quoted Kevin Owen, a partner at Gilbert Employment Law, calling OMB’s view “too narrow,” saying the clause dictates timing, not whether pay is owed.
The legal fight arrives amid a broader hard-line strategy during the week-old shutdown. Analysts note OMB Director Russ Vought has pressed aggressive theories on executive authority, including “pocket rescissions”, that have drawn scrutiny from scholars across the spectrum.
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