Federal workers not entitled to back pay after shutdown, budget office claims [View all]

Source: Washington Post

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.

Read more: https://wapo.st/47dbJEe