On Tuesday, the Trump admin said furloughed feds were not guaranteed back pay. On Wednesday, it sent notices saying they were

""Although you will be placed in non-pay and non-duty status during the furlough, the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 requires employees of the federal government who are furloughed or required to work during a lapse in appropriations to be compensated for the period of the lapse," the messages read, according to multiple copies obtained by Government Executive. "The employees must be compensated on the earliest date possible after the lapse ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates.""

""That language was noteworthy because the Office of Management and Budget has deleted from its guidance any reference to the 2019 law or back pay for furloughed federal workers, as Government Executive first reported. After Axios on Tuesday revealed that the Trump administration would take a novel interpretation of the back pay law and argue it applied only to the 2019 shutdown, OMB released to media outlets new legal guidance making that argument.""

""The 2019 measure-which Trump signed into law during the record-setting 35-day shutdown that ended that year-explicitly stated that it applied to any employee furloughed during \"any lapse in appropriations that begins on or after December 22, 2018.\" Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress rejected the Trump administration's newly minted legal argument, saying the matter was settled and the workers were guaranteed retroactive pay.""

Existing funds initially allowed the IRS and other agencies to keep employees working during the shutdown, but those funds have run out and the agency began issuing immediate furlough notices to tens of thousands of workers. The notices state that the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 requires compensation for employees furloughed during a lapse in appropriations, and mandates payment as soon as possible after the lapse ends. The Office of Management and Budget removed references to the 2019 law from its guidance and later issued new legal guidance arguing the law applied only to the 2019 shutdown. Members of both parties in Congress rejected that interpretation and legal experts said the law's plain text and legislative history support retroactive pay.

Read at Nextgov.com