Trump Says Back Pay For Fed Workers Not Guaranteed If Dems Don’t Make A Deal

President Donald Trump issued a stern warning Tuesday, making it clear that furloughed federal workers may not receive back pay unless Democrats strike a deal to reopen the government.

With roughly 750,000 federal employees currently out of work due to last week’s failed Senate vote on a temporary funding bill, Trump told reporters that any decision on back pay would “depend” on who the employees are and how the negotiations unfold.

“I would say it depends on who we’re talking about,” Trump said. “The Democrats have put a lot of people in great risk and jeopardy, 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.”

His comments come as the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) circulates a legal memo making the case that furloughed workers are not automatically entitled to back pay under current law. The memo analyzes the “Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019,” which stated furloughed workers from the 2018 shutdown were to be compensated. But according to the OMB, that provision does not carry over to future shutdowns unless Congress specifically allocates funds in the new bill that ends the current one.

In other words, if Democrats refuse to come to the table, tens of thousands of workers might remain unpaid for the duration of this standoff.

Furloughed workers, who are considered nonessential, were sent home when the government shut down. Essential employees such as air traffic controllers are still on the job and are expected to be paid retroactively once a funding bill passes.

A senior Trump administration official told Axios the crisis was entirely avoidable. “This would not have happened if Democrats voted for the clean [continuing resolution],” the official said.

Republicans are proposing a short-term bill that maintains previous spending levels. Democrats, however, are demanding major increases in domestic spending. The impasse has fueled growing frustration among federal workers and lawmakers alike.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) voiced support for providing back pay but acknowledged there’s disagreement even within the legal community.

“There are legal analysts who think that that is not something the government should do,” Johnson said. “If that is true, that should turn up the urgency and the necessity of the Democrats doing the right thing here.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has floated the idea of using the shutdown to scale back the federal workforce. No mass layoffs have occurred yet, but the OMB has reportedly instructed agency heads to prepare plans for significant staffing reductions if the shutdown drags on.

With no deal in sight, hundreds of thousands of families remain in limbo—and the Trump White House is making it clear: Democrats hold the key to reopening the government and ensuring federal workers are paid.