Van Hollen Statement on Reports of White House Efforts to Claw Back Federal Employee Pay

Today, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) released the following statement regarding reporting that the White House and the Office of Management and Budget are attempting to violate the law and claw back federal employees’ pay for the period of the government shutdown. Senator Van Hollen worked alongside Senator Cardin in 2018 to pass the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act – which was signed into law by President Trump in 2019 – to ensure federal employees would automatically receive backpay for “any lapse in appropriations that begins on or after December 22, 2018.”

“The law is the law. After the uncertainty federal employees faced in the 2019 Trump Shameful Shutdown, Senator Cardin and I worked to ensure federal employees would receive guaranteed back pay for any future shutdowns. That legislation was signed into law – and there is nothing this Administration can do to change that.”