Axios published an article, “Scoop: White House memo says furloughed federal workers aren’t entitled to back pay,” r
egarding conflicting agency guidance on whether furloughed federal employees will receive pay when the government reopens. During his first administration, President Trump signed the “Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019” (“GEFTA”). According to reporter Marc Caputo, GEFTA “has been widely interpreted as ensuring that furloughed workers automatically would be compensated after future shutdowns.” This is consistent with history; after prior shutdowns, federal employees received backpay when the government reopened. However, a White House memo from the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) says the opposite —that furloughed workers will not receive backpay after a shut down ends. OMB’s memo contradicts recent guidance issued by the Counsel of Economic Advisers and the Office of Personnel Management.
The Axios article quotes Shareholder Nekeisha Campbell the White House’s new interpretation of GEFTA:
There is no legal authority to support that interpretation of the statute[.] When the language of a statute is plain, courts must apply it except in the rare circumstance when there is a clearly expressed legislative intent to the contrary, or when a literal application would frustrate the statute’s purpose or lead to an absurd result.
Read the complete article on Axios: https://www.axios.com/2025/10/07/trump-memo-furloughed-federal-workers-backpay
