Trump threatens to deny back pay to furloughed workers who don't "deserve" it
Washington DC - President Donald Trump warned Tuesday that some workers placed on enforced leave during the government shutdown may not receive back pay if he deemed that they did not "deserve" the money.
The Republican leader made the remark when asked by reporters about a draft White House memo arguing that 750,000 employees expected to be furloughed are not guaranteed to get their money when they return to work.
"It depends on who we're talking about," Trump said. "I can tell you this, the Democrats have put a lot of people in great risk and jeopardy."
Reporting on the memo described it as the latest broadside in a campaign by Trump to pressure Senate Democrats into backing a Republican resolution to reopen the government.
Nonessential federal agencies began closing last Wednesday after Democrats – demanding an extension in expiring health care subsidies – refused to sign on to the temporary funding measure.
Trump signed a law after the last shutdown in his first term – the 2019 Government Employee Fair Treatment Act – stipulating that all federal staff "shall be paid for the period of the lapse."
But the new memo argues that, under an amended version of GEFTA, the money for those workers needs to be specifically authorized by Congress and is not automatic.
"For the most part, we're going to take care of our people," Trump said when the subject of the shutdown came up during a Oval Office event with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
"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."
Trump faces criticism from both parties over threats to furloughed workers
Withholding back pay would be seen as a significant escalation by Trump, who has already threatened the jobs of thousands of the furloughed workers if Democrats do not back down.
But his stance sparked some backlash from some Republicans on Capitol Hill.
"We've always paid back pay to the military and federal workers," Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy told reporters at the US Capitol, predicting that nothing would change this time around.
Fellow Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina said it was "a horrible message to send to people who are basically hostages right now to the Democrats shutting down the government," according to The Hill.
On the Democratic side, Washington Senator Patty Murray said the memo "flies in the face of the plain text of the law, which could not be more clear."
"Trump doesn't get to change the rules and rob workers just because he's worried his shutdown is backfiring," she added. "Scaring and intimidating workers won't work. He is not fooling anyone."
Cover photo: JIM WATSON / AFP