The longest government shutdown in U.S. history will cost taxpayers billions of dollars in backpay for federal employees.
During the 43-day funding lapse, about 400,000 government workers were excepted to stay on the job without pay, while another 400,000 were furloughed, sent home and not paid either, according to a blog post by Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor. The spending stop not only resulted in federal employees struggling to pay for rent and groceries but will drain government funding as well.
“What did this cost the American taxpayer in direct employment costs?” Kupor said in the blog post Friday. “Well, backpay for those 400,000 furloughed employees — who were legally prohibited from doing any work (through no fault of their own) — will likely run about $5 billion.”
As the shutdown dragged on, the White House questioned whether furloughed staffers would be entitled to back pay, despite President Donald Trump signing a 2019 law guaranteeing such compensation. Nevertheless, the legislative package to reopen agencies that passed Congress last week included retroactive pay, which OPM advised be distributed “as soon as possible.”
