Government Executive Update – “On Tuesday, the Trump admin said furloughed feds were not guaranteed back pay. On Wednesday, it sent notices saying they were Just one day after taking a different argument, the Trump administration notes federal law guarantees back pay for employees sent home during a shutdown…”

“All excepted employees are entitled to receive payment for their performance of excepted work during the period of the appropriations lapse when appropriations for such payments are enacted,” stated the document, which was updated Sept. 30 in advance of the current lapse. “The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 (Public Law 116-1) provides that upon enactment of appropriations to end a lapse, both furloughed and excepted employees will be paid retroactively as soon as possible after the lapse ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates.”

Axios: “Furloughed federal workers aren’t guaranteed compensation for their forced time off during the government shutdown, according to a draft White House memo described to Axios by three sources. If the White House acts on that legal analysis, it would dramatically escalate President Trump’s pressure on Senate Democrats to end the week-old shutdown by denying back pay to as many as 750,000 federal workers after the shutdown Trump wants the Democrats to back a continuing resolution to fund the government with no strings about healthcare subsidies attached.
The big picture: Under Trump, the executive branch is grabbing more power than ever — a trend that’s accelerating during the shutdown that began last week.
Zoom in: At issue is the ”Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019″ that Trump signed during the last government shutdown, which lasted a record 35 days.

• Called GEFTA, the law has been widely interpreted as ensuring that furloughed workers automatically would be compensated after future shutdowns.
• But the new White House memo from the Office of Management and Budget argues that GEFTA has been misconstrued or, in the words of one source, is “deficient” because it was amended nine days later, on Jan. 25, 2019.
• “Does this law cover all these furloughed employees automatically? The conventional wisdom is: Yes, it does. Our view is: No, it doesn’t,” a senior White House official said.

Friction point: The new OMB analysis is a major departure from the administration’s own guidance issued by the Council of Economic Advisers this month and the Office of Personnel Management last month. Both said furloughed workers should get automatic back pay after the shutdown.
The fine print: The White House’s stance revolves around the law’s amended version, which added a phrase saying furloughed workers shall be compensated “subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse.” That’s a technical phrase for shutdown…”