Trump Signs Bill to Give Back-Pay to Federal Workers Affected by Gov’t Shutdown

(KLIX) – Furloughed workers affected by the partial government shutdown will receive back-pay after President Donald Trump signed legislation on the matter Wednesday.

A brief statement from the White House explained that the bill, called Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, requires

“the compensation of government employees for wages lost, work performed, or leave used during a lapse in appropriations that begins on or after December 22, 2018, and entitles excepted employees to use leave during a lapse in appropriations.”

Both Republicans and Democrats were in favor of the bill, according to a report by The Hill.

The partial government shutdown started just days before Christmas, after the president said he’d close some federal services until Congress approved his request for more than $5 billion to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The shutdown has affected more than 800,000 government workers who have either been furloughed or are working without pay.

Turning to his Twitter account, Trump posted on Wednesday:

“It is becoming more and more obvious that the Radical Democrats are a Party of open borders and crime. They want nothing to do with the major Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border.”

But Democrats say building a wall is not economical for the country and does not guarantee it would do what the president said it would. More so, said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a wall is not what America is about.

“The president cannot hold public employees hostage because he wants to have a wall that is not effective – not effective in terms of its purpose, not cost effective in terms of what it is in federal dollars to spend,” Pelosi said in a press briefing on Jan. 4, as recorded by The Guardian. “The president said Mexico is going to pay for this. Come on, let’s anchor ourselves into reality. Mexico is not going to pay for this wall.”

Congress hasn’t approved funding for it either, and the stalemate in the country's longest government shutdown continues. Wednesday was the 22nd day of the shutdown.