President Donald Trump this week indicated that the federal government may deny back pay to some employees furloughed amid a government shutdown.
When asked on Tuesday if government workers would receive back pay, Trump told reporters, "It depends who we're talking about."
“There are some people that don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way,” Trump added.
Within hours, members of Congress from both major parties said they support back pay for furloughed workers.
Trump may attempt to deny back pay to furloughed employees but the move would all but certainly violate existing law, according to some legal experts who spoke with ABC News. Still, they added, a potential legal fight could bring the issue to the Supreme Court, where experts differed about Trump’s likelihood of success before a conservative-majority court.
Here’s what to know about whether the law protects back pay for furloughed government employees, and what could happen next in the fight over their compensation:
Yes, furloughed workers usually receive full back pay when a shutdown ends and the government reopens. Approximately 750,000 federal workers have been furloughed. The Congressional Budget Office last month projected the total cost of compensation for those workers at about $400 million for each day of the shutdown.
For now, the shutdown -- which entered its tenth day on Friday -- appears...
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