By AUDREY KEEFE
Capital News Service
WASHINGTON – Furloughed federal workers may not be entitled to back pay when they return from the government shutdown, according to a draft memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget, first reported by Axios.
The memo comes almost a week into the shutdown and marks a stark change in the Trump administration’s position on furloughed federal workers’ pay.
President Donald Trump further confused the issue on Tuesday. Asked by a reporter whether federal workers should get retroactive pay after the shutdown ends, the president responded: “It depends on who we’re talking about.”
“For the most part, we’re going to take care of our people,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “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.”
However, Maryland lawmakers and a top union leader said the White House and the OMB are attempting to violate a 2019 law and potentially halt about 750,000 federal employees’ pay.
“The law is the law,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, said in a statement. “That legislation was signed into law – and there is nothing this Administration can do to change that.”
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement the memo is “an obvious misinterpretation of the law.” The AFGE is the largest federal employee union and represents more than 820,000 workers.
Kelley lambasted the memo’s goals and said it is an attack on federal employees.
“The livelihoods of the patriotic Americans serving their country in the federal government are not bargaining chips in a political game,” Kelley said.
“Those who want the government to stay open and operating do not threaten its employees,” Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, said in a post on X. “Federal workers aren’t political pawns; they’re patriots.”
“The president is threatening to deliberately violate the law; or he is suffering from a debilitating case of legislative amnesia,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, said in a statement. “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 Government Employee Fair Treatment Act was signed in 2019 by President Donald Trump during the last government shutdown. The bill ensured back pay for federal employees during lapses in federal spending.
Now, an amended version of the law is providing OMB with an alleged loophole. The language states the compensation is only mandatory “subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse.”
The new interpretation means furloughed workers could only be paid if the funds are specifically appropriated by Congress, according to Axios. This differs from the original statement made in 2019 by OPM, which said furloughed workers would receive retroactive pay.
Van Hollen argued the interpretation shift threatens the original intent of the law. He said he previously worked with former Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland, in 2019 to “ensure federal employees would receive guaranteed back pay for any future shutdowns.”
Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Maryland, said instead of “attacking government workers,” Republicans and the Trump administration should come to the table with Democrats and create a solution to the Medicaid cuts and the expiration of the Affordable Care Act.
“Democrats are trying to force (Republicans) to fix the problem they’ve created, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Ivey told Capital News Service.
