President Trump on Wednesday signed a bill into law guaranteeing back pay to federal government employees furloughed due to the partial shutdown.
Federal workers will be compensated for “wages lost, work performed, or leave used” since the funding gap started on Dec. 22, the White House said in a brief statement after the president put his signature on the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act.
About 800,000 federal employees are impacted by the shutdown. Of those, about 380,000 have been on furlough. Another 420,000 employees are working without pay and are already assured of back pay upon the shutdown’s end.
The shutdown began amid a breakdown in negotiations between the Trump administration and Democrats on Capitol Hill. Trump is demanding about $5.7 billion for his proposed southern border wall, while Democratic lawmakers refuse to negotiate on that funding until the government has been reopened.
Introduced in the Senate by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., the bill Trump signed Wednesday stipulates that furloughed federal workers will be paid “at the earliest date possible” rather than according to their usual remuneration schedule. They have so far missed one paycheck.
Cardin celebrated the bill’s signing Wednesday, describing it as “an important step toward providing our civil servants with some stability and hope.”
“But it doesn’t help pay the bills *now.* To do that, we MUST reopen the government,” he tweeted.
In 1 hour, @POTUS will sign my bill guaranteeing back pay for federal workers into law.
This is an important step toward providing our civil servants with some stability and hope. But it doesn’t help pay the bills *now.* To do that, we MUST reopen the government. #EndTheShutdown
— Senator Ben Cardin (@SenatorCardin) January 16, 2019
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have introduced legislation meant to ensure that workers for federal contractors are given some back pay when the partial shutdown ends.
Editor’s note: This report has been updated to make clear the back pay bill the president signed is for furloughed federal workers.
