Furloughed federal workers are not entitled to automatic back pay after the government shutdown ends, the Trump administration’s budget office claimed in a new draft memo obtained by The Washington Post, ratcheting up tensions in Washington over the weeklong closure.

The top lawyer at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) argued in the draft that the law Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed in 2019 that guaranteed back pay to furloughed workers does no such thing.

“The legislation that ends the current lapse in appropriations must include express language appropriating funds for back pay for furloughed employees, or such payments cannot be made,” Mark Paoletta, OMB’s general counsel, wrote to White House budget director Russell Vought.

By that interpretation

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