President Donald Trump met journalists from the Oval Office on Tuesday at a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
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President Trump floated the possibility that some of the approximately 600,000 federal workers on leave may be denied remuneration once the government will reopen, despite a 2019 law intended to ensure that federal employees are compensated after a closure.
Speaking Tuesday in the oval office, Trump seemed to publicly retain a white house memo project which includes an argument to refuse workers the salary.
“I would say it depends on who we are talking about,” said Trump. “I can tell you this, the Democrats have put a lot of people at great risk and in danger, but it really depends on who you are talking about. But for the most part, we will take care of our people. There are people who really do not deserve to be taken care of and we will take care of them in a different way.”
When he supported the legality of such a decision, Trump said: “What the law says is correct and I am the law.”
Trump answered questions about a management and budget office service project, which was reported for the first time by Axios And confirmed by a senior non -authorized White House official to discuss the note that has not been publicly disseminated.
The fight against federal workers is the last salvo of the Trump administration’s efforts to force democrats to vote for a continuous resolution and to lower their requests to extend health care subsidies for millions of Americans.
The legal argument of the Mémo contradicted Guide issued by the staff management office and the The wording of a 2019 law Signed by President Trump during his first mandate which explicitly guarantees that federal workers “will be paid” at the end of a judgment, whether on leave or work.
The 2019 law on the treatment of government employees, a bipartite law promulgated after the record closure of 35 days in 2018, added a language to the anti -de -tax law which automatically applied remuneration to federal employees for “any forfeiture of the credits which begins on December 22, 2018”.
Previously, the Congress had to approve retroactive funding after closing with new legislation.
The white house note notes a clause in the text which indicates that the workers will be paid “on the first date possible after the end of the end of the credits, whatever the remuneration dates, and subject to the promulgation of credit acts putting an end to the lance” and maintains that this means that the action of the congress is required to carry out the salary back.
The directives published by the Office of Management and Budget on September 30 included a reference to automatic catering of the law remuneration.
“The 2019 law on the treatment of government employees (public law 116-1) provides that the promulgation of credits to end a lance, employees both on leave and except will be paid retroactively as soon as possible after the end of the end, whatever the dates of remuneration provided”, ” The memo of September 30 bed. “Additional advice for agencies on the implementation of public law 116-1 and the processing of remuneration and leave are available from the OPM.”
An updated version on October 3 removes this paragraph.
The Mémo project is the last of a Pressure campaign with several stations of the White House seeking to punish the Democrats when closing, including efforts to cancel the funding of subsidies for energy projects and maintain transportation of transport in states that have not voted for Trump in 2024. The administration has not also threatened a general reduction in federal agencies that have not been carried out.
Deepa Shivaram contributed to this report.
