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An expected sixth vote to reopen the government didn’t come to fruition on Tuesday, but lawmakers face a new wrinkle: the possibility that furloughed employees won’t be paid.
The government shutdown marched into its seventh day with both Senate Republicans and Democrats still at odds on a path forward, and no real clear end in sight. The Senate was expected to vote on the GOP’s plan again, but no agreement could be reached to bring the bill, along with the Democrats’ counter-proposal, to the floor.
Both sides are still entrenched in their positions, too. Senate Democrats want a firm deal on the extension of expiring ObamaCare tax credits to earn their votes to reopen the government, while Senate Republicans have promised that negotiations on the credits can happen once the government is open again.
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Lawmakers failed to hold a sixth vote to reopen the government Tuesday as a new White House memo warned that furloughed workers may not get paid.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has continued to ramp up his messaging that Americans broadly support their push, and blamed House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Republicans for not being in session as a major roadblock to progress.
“Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are furloughed and thousands more are working without pay. And meanwhile, House Republicans are getting paid and not working,” Schumer said. “So federal workers working and not getting paid. House Republicans paid and not working. Very bad. Very bad thing for them. Very bad picture for them.”
While lawmakers traded barbs and discussed an off-ramp on Capitol Hill, the latest memo from the White House, first reported by Axios, signaled that up to 750,000 nonessential furloughed federal workers may not be paid.
The memo adds fresh uncertainty for hundreds of thousands of federal employees caught in the political crossfire.
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When asked if it was the White House’s position whether federal workers should be paid back pay, President Donald Trump said, “I would say it depends on who we’re talking about.”
“I can tell you this,” Trump said. “The Democrats have put a lot of people in great risk and jeopardy, but it really depends on who you’re talking about. But for the most part, we’re going to take care of our people. There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.”
Many lawmakers had just learned about the memo as of Tuesday afternoon. It suggested that a 2019 law signed by Trump that guaranteed back pay for furloughed workers in future shutdowns may not have to be followed.
“I just heard that,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., said. “My phones are lighting up.”
When asked if the memo hurt or helped talks, she said, “It could get more urgent, it also could tick a lot of people off.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said that the memo was “probably not a good message to send right now to people who are not being paid.”
“I’m not an attorney, but I think it’s bad strategy to even say that sort of stuff,” Tillis said. “We got a lot of hard-working people there on the sidelines now because the Democrats have put them there.”
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said that she believed that issue had been settled with the 2019 law, but as a “back up,” Congress could pass a bill that any “obligations that were incurred during the shutdown are authorized to be paid.”
And Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, argued that regardless of the memo, the law said “shall.”
“I left my law degree in the car, but ‘shall’ is relatively straightforward,” he said. “I think it doesn’t matter at all, because we’re fighting for healthcare.”
The latest pressure tactic on Senate Democrats comes after the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directed in a previous memo that mass firings could be on the horizon beyond the typical furloughs during a shutdown.
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It also comes after OMB Director Russ Vought announced nearly $30 billion in federal funding was set to be withheld from blue cities and states.
Both Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., wanted to see federal workers get paid, but contended that the issue would go away if Schumer and Senate Democrats reopened the government.
“My assumption is that furloughed workers will get back pay,” Thune said. “But that being said, this is very simple. Open up the government and this is a non-issue. We don’t have to have this conversation. Everybody gets paid when the government is open.”
Meanwhile, the previous tactics did little to nudge Democrats from their position, and so far, have not killed talks between either side.
But Sen. Jean Shaheen, D-N.H., who has been a key communicator for Senate Democrats in bipartisan talks, said that Vought’s actions weren’t helping matters.
“It would be a lot easier to resolve the situation if Russ Vought would stop talking,” Shaheen said.
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