Hundreds of thousands of federal workers might not receive back pay when the government reopens, according to the White House.
A draft memo from the Office of Management and Budget seen by Business Insider says that employees who have been "furloughed" — temporarily suspended from their jobs during the government shutdown — are not automatically entitled to back pay.
That's despite a 2019 law, the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, that is widely understood to guarantee back pay to all federal workers following government shutdowns.
The memo is also at odds with guidance that the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued late last month, which states plainly that furloughed federal workers will be paid after the end of a shutdown.
"After the lapse in appropriations has ended, employees who were furloughed as the result of the lapse will receive retroactive pay for those furlough periods," reads the OPM guidance. "Retroactive pay will be provided on the earliest date possible after the lapse ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates."
Internal OPM guidelines for furloughed workers viewed by Business Insider also state that employees who are furloughed will eventually get paid.
At issue is a phrase in the law stating that federal workers will be paid "subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse."
The White House memo argues that language requires Congress to specifically pass a bill to provide that pay, and that it's not granted automatically.
It also says that employees who have been required to work during the shutdown will be paid.
The existence of the draft memo was first reported by Axios.
If the White House interpretation is applied, it would impact their own staff, roughly one-third of whom have been furloughed as a result of the shutdown. All 45 DOGE staffers remain on the job.
One furloughed Department of Housing worker said that they don't believe Congress would sign off on a reopening without back pay for federal workers.
"It's scary since obviously we don't have any control over the government shutting down," they said.
Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate committee overseeing government funding, said that the memo was an intimidation tactic.
"The letter of the law is as plain as can be—federal workers, including furloughed workers, are entitled to their backpay following a shutdown," Murray wrote on X. "Another baseless attempt to try and scare & intimidate workers by an administration run by crooks and cowards."
One furloughed IRS employee, whose spouse is also furloughed, said that they have enough savings to miss two paychecks. "After that, we'll be in trouble," they said.
The Trump administration has also suggested that mass firings could come as a result of the shutdown. Seven days later, those firings have yet to take place.
"Our livelihoods have been at risk since January," a furloughed CDC employee said. "There are people in much worse financial circumstances than me and those are the people who will be harmed most."
Ayelet Sheffey contributed reporting.
