US President Donald Trump’s administration has proposed that federal employees who have been idle due to government shutdowns will not automatically receive retroactive wages when the standoffs end, according to internal documents explained to Reuters on Tuesday.
If adopted as an official policy, Reuters said, it could threaten payments for up to 700,000 scientists, managers and other civil servants ordered not to work since the closure began on October 1.
This would counter guidance from Trump’s HR office. This states that the 2019 law signed by Trump will ensure payments to all employees after the closure ends and assure them as soon as possible whether they are required to stay at work. It also threatens to overturn past practices in Washington since Congress voted to restore wages to all employees in 1981.
Speaking to a White House reporter on the seventh day of the shutdown, Trump suggested that he shouldn’t pay for all idle states when normal operations resume. “It depends on who we’re talking about,” he said without further explanation.
MNA/