The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently updated its shutdown guidance, removing language that guarantees federal employees furloughed during a government shutdown will receive back pay. As recently as September 2025, OPM guidance assured both excepted and furloughed feds would be provided back pay as soon as a funding lapse ended – as included in the 2019 Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, signed into law by President Trump in his first term.

Administration officials were non-committal about back pay during the 2025 government shutdown, which set a dubious record as the longest shutdown in American history. However, Congress explicitly ensured all federal employees would receive back pay at the conclusion of the shutdown.

Reporting by Federal News Network found the guidance currently available from OPM removes “references to back pay for furloughed employees, including in sections on federal retirement, health insurance and unemployment benefits.” Instead, the guidance reads “Congress will determine via legislation whether furloughed employees receive pay for furlough periods.”

The Office of Management and Budget also made changes to its shutdown guidance, which now says furloughed employees will receive retroactive pay “when specific appropriations for such payments are enacted.”

OPM’s updated guidance is unfortunate, as federal employees have all too frequently been used as pawns in a political game of chicken, and can get caught in the crossfire of political funding debates. Feds’ paychecks should never be held hostage due to the inability of Congress and the administration to do their jobs, particularly since Congress already addressed this issue in 2019.

FMA supports the Shutdown Fairness Act (S. 3168 / H.R. 7137), introduced by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) in the Senate and Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) in the House, whereby federal employees would no longer be furloughed, would perform their duties to the maximum extent possible during a lapse in funding, and would be paid on their normal schedule throughout the duration of a spending lapse.

The measure would appropriate funds to be solely used to pay salaries and wages to feds during any lapse in funding to agencies. It would apply to covered federal employees hired and onboarded prior to a shutdown, and every dollar appropriated would be required to go to employee paychecks. The bill would apply to any future lapse in funding, ensuring feds would no longer be forced to work without pay, or sent home, due to the inability of Congress and the Administration to fund agencies.

Click here to check on the progress of the Shutdown Fairness Act.