US President Donald Trump has hinted that some federal employees who were furloughed during the government shutdown will not receive back pay for that time once they return to work, CNBC reports.
The warning came hours after the release of a White House draft that claims that pay is not guaranteed.
It appears to contradict the latest guidelines of the Trump administration. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management has said categorically that the pay will be paid.
A federal law that Trump signed after the last government shutdown in 2019 further states that furloughed U.S. government employees "shall be paid for the period of the shutdown."
A White House official told Axios that the administration's view is that the law does not guarantee such payments and that Congress must specifically appropriate the funds.
When asked Tuesday afternoon at the White House, Trump said, "I would say it depends on who we're talking to."
Democrats — whom Trump and Republicans blame for the shutdown, now in its seventh day — "have put a lot of people at great risk and danger," the president said in the Oval Office alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Esper. Carney.
"But it really depends on who you're talking about, he said. For the most part, we're going to take care of our people. There are people who really don't deserve it, and we're going to take care of them differently."