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Furloughed workers not guaranteed back pay after shutdown, OMB claims
The Washington Post ^ | October 7, 2025 | Jacob Bogage

Posted on 10/07/2025 11:23:56 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

The government shutdown entered its seventh day Wednesday with no end in sight. The White House says a 2019 law doesn’t guarantee retroactive pay.

Furloughed federal workers are not entitled to automatic back pay after the government shutdown ends, the Trump administration’s budget office claimed in a new draft memo obtained by The Washington Post, ratcheting up tensions in Washington over the week-long closure.

The top lawyer at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) argued in the draft that the law Congress passed and Trump signed in 2019 that guaranteed back pay to furloughed workers does no such thing.

Mark Paoletta, the OMB’s general counsel, wrote to White House budget director Russell Vought that the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 and subsequent legislation merely create conditions for Congress to authorize those payments. Lawmakers must also specifically set aside additional money to compensate workers returning from furloughs, he wrote.

Policymakers, including leading appropriators in Congress and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), had generally interpreted the law in a more straightforward fashion: that new legislation to fund agencies would also automatically pay the government’s employees, whether furloughed or working without pay.
“It is a lucid reinterpretation of the law, but clearly against its intent,” said Robert Shea, a budget expert and former Republican OMB official.

Axios first reported the existence of the OMB memo.

President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that it wasn’t certain that all workers would get back pay.

“I would say it depends on who we’re talking about,” Trump said. “I can tell you this: The Democrats have put a lot of people in great risk and jeopardy, but it really depends on who you’re talking about. But for the most part, we’re going to take care of our people. There are some...


(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Government
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1 posted on 10/07/2025 11:23:56 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Why should they? No work, no pay. It’s not that difficult to figure out.


2 posted on 10/07/2025 11:25:12 AM PDT by econjack
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The issue is “automatic” back pay. Some furloughed employees may get back pay and some may not. Local Washington DC media is playing this up to influence the Virginia governor race. The media used a government shutdown to defeat Ken Cuccinelli in 2013.


3 posted on 10/07/2025 11:33:38 AM PDT by vaskypilot
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Let them litigate it in civil courts. Due process is important to these people.


4 posted on 10/07/2025 11:36:44 AM PDT by blackdog ((Z28.310) "Diggin the scene with a gangster lean" (Mayfield, Curtis) )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Most work remotely from home anyway!


5 posted on 10/07/2025 11:37:40 AM PDT by blackdog ((Z28.310) "Diggin the scene with a gangster lean" (Mayfield, Curtis) )
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To: blackdog
Let them litigate it in civil courts. Due process is important to these people.

As cops like to say, "They might beat the rap, but they won't beat the ride."

6 posted on 10/07/2025 11:39:06 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Je suis Charlie Kirk.)
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To: blackdog

There are many that can not work from home due to classified material. I think that Federal employees should have to use their sick leave or vacation time to supplement their pay .


7 posted on 10/07/2025 11:43:56 AM PDT by heylady
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To: vaskypilot

If you worked without pay, they for sure, you need to get paid back for that work!
Otherwise, no work, no pay!
Every shutdown, I was upset, when they all get paid for nothing. That has to end!


8 posted on 10/07/2025 11:53:42 AM PDT by AZJeep (sane )
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To: heylady

Way too much is “classified”. I bought stock in Sharpee. The government provides me with quite the steady income. (Newell Brands) The Biden bunch alone applies carbon black marker to everything they did. Extrapolate that out to Beltway Scale, and I’m surprised there is much carbon black ink left on the planet!


9 posted on 10/07/2025 12:16:49 PM PDT by blackdog ((Z28.310) "Diggin the scene with a gangster lean" (Mayfield, Curtis) )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

There’s gonna be a glut of used Teslas for sale!!


10 posted on 10/07/2025 12:25:45 PM PDT by albie
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

With back pay in the future, workers are just on an extended vacation. I would rather think they would enjoy it. I know I would.


11 posted on 10/07/2025 12:25:56 PM PDT by gildafarrell ("No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.")
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To: econjack

They did not choose to be off work.


12 posted on 10/07/2025 12:39:33 PM PDT by lastchance (Cognovit Dominus qui sunt eius.)
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To: lastchance

Nor do most laid off workers.

Private industry workers don’t get back pay.

Why should gubmint workers be special?


13 posted on 10/07/2025 12:43:14 PM PDT by TheThirdRuffian (Orange is the new brown)
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To: TheThirdRuffian

I have no problem with the critical workers who work during this time getting back pay. I have a terrible problem with those getting another vacation on top of the rest of the stuff getting a paid vacation too. No work, no pay. In this case it is their recalcitrant dem reps who caused this, let them whine to them.


14 posted on 10/07/2025 1:23:19 PM PDT by Mouton (There is a new sheriff and deputy in town now!)
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To: AZJeep

I agree. I was commenting on the text in the article.


15 posted on 10/07/2025 2:29:15 PM PDT by vaskypilot
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

*Common Sense*


16 posted on 10/08/2025 1:54:37 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (The enemy has US surrounded. May God have mercy on them.)
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