White House says furloughed federal workers not entitled to back pay amid shutdown | US federal government shutdown 2025

The Management and Budget Office (OMB) of the White House argues that federal workers who are unemployed due to the current government closure are not entitled to salary arrears.

In a note project obtained for the first time by Axios, the OMB argued that an amendment to the law on fair treatment of government employees (GEFTA) of 2019 would not guarantee the salary of unemployment workers and that these funds were to be put aside by the Congress.

“The legislation which puts an end to the current deficit of credits must include an explicit text providing for the funds for the salary of unemployment employees, if not such payments cannot be made,” said Mark Paoletta, lawyer general of the OMB, in a project addressed to the director of the White House budget, Russell Vought, reported the Washington Post.

The OMB had previously revised an orientation document on the closure on Friday to remove the reference to the Gefta law, reported Government Executive, a media site covering American executive power.

Donald Trump had already signed the Gefta law after the government closed in 2019, which lasted 35 days. While many have understood that the law automatically guaranteed the salary of federal workers, the Omb of the White House is opposed to this interpretation, suggesting that the law only creates the conditions of the arrears of salary.

Trump and other Republicans have not confirmed if the workers would be paid when the government is reopening. Asked about the position of the White House concerning the arrears of payment of federal workers, Trump replied that “it depends on who we are talking about” during comments in the oval office on Tuesday.

Trump also added that he planned to announce additional government programs which will be definitively deleted as the closure continues, as well as any layoffs, CNN reported.

The president of the chamber, Mike Johnson, said that the federal workers affected by the closure should receive arrears of salary, but noted that “certain legal analysts [are] say that [back payments] May not be appropriate or necessary, with regard to the law requiring that salary arrears be paid, ”reported Hill.

Several Republicans have said that questions about wage arrears should put pressure on the Democrats in the Congress to support a continuous resolution aimed at reopening the government.

Meanwhile, the Democrats called the reinterpretation of the Gefta as illegal. Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who houses thousands of federal officials, said that any suggestion of reservoir of salary arrears is “more a campaign for fear on the part of a president who wants a white check for anarchy”.

Senator Patty Murray from Washington, one of the main democrats of the Credit Senate Committee, described the last reinterpretation of “law”. “They plot to try to deprive federal workers on leave of their salary backwards at the end of this closure,” Murray said during his speech in the Senate. “This goes against the clear text of the law, which could not be clear.”

It is estimated that 750,000 federal workers have been unemployed during the closure of the federal government, which is now on its seventh day, post citing the Congress accountants.