Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski is joining more than 150 congressional Democrats to demand that White House budget director Russ Vought commit to providing back pay to furloughed federal workers.
Murkowski is a frequent, vocal critic of the Trump administration. Her decision to sign on to the new letter to Vought as the lone Republican, however, speaks to the growing anxiety inside the GOP over the possibility that federal employees won’t be compensated for the weeks they went without paychecks during the prolonged government shutdown.
“The law is clear: all impacted government employees, regardless of excepted or furloughed status, are entitled to back pay after a government shutdown ends, which is consistent with the guidance currently provided by federal agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management,” lawmakers wrote in the letter.
“OPM’s shutdown guidance from September 2025 still states that furloughed federal workers will be provided back pay once the government reopens,” they added.
