WASHINGTON—House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Oct. 8 that he expects that federal workers will receive back pay when the government reopens.
“It’s my understanding that the law is that they would be paid,” Johnson told reporters at a press conference on Capitol Hill.
“There is some other legal analysis that’s floating around. I have yet had time to dig into and read that, but it has always been the case. That is tradition and I think it is statutory law that federal employees be paid, and that’s my position. I think they should be.”
Johnson’s comments, made on the eighth day of the government shutdown, were in reference to an unpublished draft memo by Office of Management and Budget General Counsel Mark R. Paoletta to the agency’s director, Russ Vought.
The memo suggested that the furloughed workers are not automatically guaranteed back pay, despite language in the 2019 Government Employee Fair Treatment Act that seems to ensure they will be paid.
Congress needs to specifically appropriate back pay funding for those who stayed at home during the shutdown, Paoletta’s memo says. However, it also says employees who were required to show up for work are legally entitled to pay.
Johnson’s stance mirrors that of Sen. Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who said on Tuesday that he expects furloughed workers to be paid.
“But that being said, this is very simple. Open up the government, and this is a non-issue. We don’t have to have this conversation.”
Senate Republicans and Democrats are gridlocked on government funding. The House of Representatives already passed a continuing resolution, or CR, that keeps spending levels static and would temporarily keep the government funded until Nov. 21.
However, the Senate, which requires 60 votes to bypass a filibuster, has failed to pass that legislation. Democrats—with a few exceptions—are holding it back, hoping for a repeal of recent Medicaid cuts and an extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits that will expire in December.
When asked during an event at the White House on Tuesday about pay for the furloughed employees, President Donald Trump said: “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 people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.”