The White House is attempting to challenge a legal precedent that grants automatic back pay to hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal workers at the end of a government shutdown, according to media reports.
A new White House memo claims that the US Congress must specifically earmark funding for furloughed workers, under a new interpretation of the “Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019”, according to the US news outlet Axios.
Axios reported the news on Tuesday evening in the US, citing a memo from the Office of Management and Budget and senior White House officials. The news was later corroborated by other US media outlets.
The Fair Treatment Act was passed during the first administration of US President Donald Trump, following a 35-day shutdown that lasted from December 2018 to January 2019.
The Trump administration is now arguing that the wording of the law requires a specific action from Congress rather than an automatic payment to furloughed workers, as the shutdown is due to enter its eighth day on Wednesday.
“Does this law cover all these furloughed employees automatically? The conventional wisdom is: Yes, it does. Our view is: No, it doesn’t,” a senior White House official told Axios.
Not all Republicans agree with the White House strategy.
Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, a Republican, told CBS News that Trump alone could not determine whether federal workers are paid.
“It’s not up to the president. His opinion matters, but Congress has got to appropriate the money,” he said.
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