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IRS pulls back on promise of back pay for idled workers

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The IRS is walking back guidance on back pay for staffers a day after the agency furloughed almost half its employees and suggested they would receive retroactive paychecks, according to an email obtained by Blue Light News.

“An earlier memo circulated on furlough guidance incorrectly stated the nature of the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 as it relates to compensation for non-pay and non-duty status,” the email to employees, sent Thursday, reads. “The Office of Management and Budget will provide further guidance on this issue, and you will be updated accordingly.”

The newest guidance contradicts the IRS’s initial guidance in its furlough decision letter, which is still posted on the agency’s website and includes a reminder that “employees must be compensated on the earliest date possible after the [government funding] lapse ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates,” as per the 2019 law President Donald Trump signed.

The initial letter came a day after a White House memo suggested furloughed federal employees might not receive back pay.

The move will likely roil employees who have seen the federal workforce as a relatively stable career path. The Trump administration has spent much of the year unwinding the federal government, and in the process has terminated or offered deferred resignations to tens of thousands of people. The IRS itself has shed more than 26,000 workers this year.

Earlier this week, the Interior Department similarly reversed guidance on back pay, Blue Light News reported.

The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. And the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS workers, declined to comment.

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Congress

John Thune says he’s aiming to land DHS deal Thursday

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he wants to clinch a bipartisan Department of Homeland Security funding agreement Thursday.

“I think the Dems are now in possession of what I think is our last and final” offer, Thune told reporters. “So let’s hope this gets it done.”

“We’re going to know soon,” he added.

The South Dakota Republican declined to discuss details of the offer but suggested it was similar to where the discussions were headed over the weekend. GOP senators then were looking at a bipartisan deal that would fund most of DHS but leave out funding for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations.

That offer was rejected by Democrats. But two people granted anonymity to discuss the revised proposal said it, too, omitted only ERO money but included additional language to try to address some of Democrats’ concerns.

Spokespeople for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Senate is expected to vote again on the House-passed DHS bill Thursday afternoon. The House is also voting again on DHS funding Thursday and is planning to leave town Friday morning for a two-week holiday recess. Progress in the Senate could prompt House GOP leaders to stay in session in hopes of sending a bill to President Donald Trump.

Asked about the Senate vote, Thune said he hoped there would be “some finality in this real soon.”

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Collins meets the Problem Solvers

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Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins joined the House Problem Solvers Caucus lunch Thursday to talk about the stalled Homeland Security funding effort and proposals to overhaul federal immigration enforcement activities.

“I think everyone is pretty frustrated at this point,” the Maine Republican said in an interview after the bipartisan meeting.

The centrist group, which extended the invitation to Collins, talked through the pain points on finding a path out of the DHS shutdown that has stretched more than 40 days and is triggering massive air travel disruptions. The conversation comes ahead of a House vote later Thursday on funding DHS, where moderates are looking to break the impasse.

Meredith Lee Hill, Jordain Carney and Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.

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Brian Fitzpatrick delivers a warning on GOP reconciliation redo

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As House Republicans start to dream big about another party-line bill, one key member who voted down the last GOP reconciliation bill is warning his colleagues not to count on his support.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) referenced his vote last summer against the “big, beautiful bill” in an interview Thursday and suggested he was prepared to oppose another GOP-only bill if it, too, includes spending cuts he opposes to social programs.

“You saw what I did on the first reconciliation bill,” Fitzpatrick said. Fitzpatrick and just one more House Republican could be enough to tank a party-line package given Speaker Mike Johnson’s slim majority.

Still, many of Fitzpatrick’s colleagues are making plans for an expansive new GOP-only bill that would include more money for Homeland Security operations, Iran war funding and other cost-of-living priorities, while demanding it be fully offset with spending cuts — possibly from social programs targeted for “fraud prevention.”

“You never say ‘never’ at anything, but I’m never a fan of single-party bills,” Fitzpatrick said. “That’s just my approach to government.”

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