Congress guarantees furloughed feds’ backpay despite continued White House maneuvering

When Congress voted Tuesday to end the four-day partial government shutdown, lawmakers included language reiterating that all federal workers furloughed or forced to work without pay during the lapse receive back pay, despite renewed wrangling by the Trump administration to the contrary.

The House voted 217-214 to pass a bill funding the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, State and Treasury, as well as related independent agencies, through September. The measure, which Trump signed Tuesday afternoon, also provides two weeks of stopgap funding for the Homeland Security Department, opening the door to further Senate negotiations on Democrats’ demands to curb Trump’s crackdown on immigration and dissent in American cities.

The measure includes language reiterating that agencies “shall” use funds to pay feds as outlined in the 2019 Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, a law passed in the wake of the 2018-2019 35-day partial government shutdown guaranteeing all federal workers, excepted and furloughed alike, receive backpay automatically at the end of a lapse in appropriations.

That’s because last fall, in the midst of the record-setting 43-day full government shutdown, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought began insisting that GEFTA does not, in fact, guarantee federal workers backpay automatically and that Congress still must authorize backpay payments for furloughed employees.

While OMB quietly revised its shutdown guidance document for agencies to excise references to GEFTA and automatic backpay during last October’s appropriations lapse, the Office of Personnel Management’s own document issuing guidance for shutdown furloughs and other pay and benefits issues continued to state that feds would indeed receive backpay regardless of their work status during the lapse.

“After the lapse in appropriations has ended, employees who were furloughed as a result of the lapse will receive retroactive pay for those furlough periods, (See 31 U.S.C. 1341(c)(2)),” the document stated, referring to the 2019 law. “Retroactive pay will be provided on the earliest date possible after the lapse ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates.”

But in a new update dated Jan. 30, OPM deleted that language, apparently in an effort to conform to OMB’s legal interpretation of GEFTA. Federal News Network first reported on the document’s revision.

“Congress will determine via legislation whether furloughed employees receive pay for furlough periods,” OPM wrote in the guidance’s latest version. “After any congressional action, supplemental guidance may be issued to assist agencies in determining pay and service credit for such furlough periods.”

In response, Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., reintroduced the True Shutdown Fairness Act, a measure previously proposed last fall to ensure all federal workers, as well as contractors, are paid on time during any lapse in appropriations between now and Sept. 30. The measure also bars federal agencies from initiating reductions in force during shutdowns, after the administration tried unsuccessfully to do so last fall.

“Federal workers and service members should never be used as leverage in Republicans’ shutdown standoffs, and the Trump administration should never be able to use a shutdown to inflict harm on our federal workforce, as we have seen,” he said in a statement. “This bill would provide critical protections by ensuring workers get paid during any fiscal 2026 shutdown, contractors can keep paying their staff, and the Trump administration would be blocked from using a shutdown as a smokescreen to purge the federal workforce through reductions in force.”