Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday that federal workers furloughed during the shutdown should receive back pay, but he also raised the prospect that those payments might not be forthcoming.

“I hope that the furloughed workers receive back pay, of course,” Johnson told reporters in the Capitol. “We have some extraordinary Americans who serve the federal government — they serve valiantly and they work hard and they serve in these various agencies doing really important work.”

Yet Johnson also acknowledged a new memo from President Trump’s budget office suggesting that the administration is under no legal obligation to compensate furloughed workers for days lost to the shutdown.

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