WASHINGTON (AP) — Furloughing federal workers in last month’s partial federal shutdown cost the government 6.6 million work days, according to a White House budget office report Thursday.

Taxpayers will cover the $2 billion cost of providing back pay to the 850,000 workers sent home during all or part of the 16-day shutdown. After Congress decided in the middle of the shutdown to pay Pentagon workers, 400,000 federal employees were kept off the job.

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