White House Budget Office Argues Furloughed Federal Workers Are Not Automatically Owed Back Pay

On October 7, 2025, Axios reported on a draft Office of Management and Budget memo arguing that the 2019 Government Employee Fair Treatment Act does not automatically guarantee back pay to workers furloughed during the shutdown, which had idled as many as 750,000 employees. The memo turned on language added to the statute in January 2019 making compensation "subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse," which OMB read as requiring Congress to appropriate back pay specifically. A senior official summarized the position: "The conventional wisdom is: Yes, it does. Our view is: No, it doesn't." The Council of Economic Advisers and the Office of Personnel Management had both previously said back pay was automatic.

The 2019 law was enacted to end the practice of making furloughed workers wait on discretionary congressional action for wages already lost. Reinterpreting it mid-shutdown would convert a statutory entitlement into a bargaining chip.

Members of both parties wrote to OMB objecting to the interpretation. No court ruled on the reading in October 2025.