Summary
- The
Senate still deadlocked on funding to end the shutdown. - House
members defend positions in their districts. - Democrats
want health care and tax credits included.
In its seventh round of voting,
the Senate considered competing Republican and Democratic ideas to relaunch the
financing, but neither received enough bipartisan support to pass the chamber
with 60 votes. No senators altered their votes from the last time the
legislation were examined in recent days, indicating that neither party had
backed down from its demands.
Republicans are demanding that
Senate Democrats support a package that has already passed the House of
Representatives to extend operations through November 21 after government
funding expired last Wednesday. Democrats, meanwhile, insist that any agreement
involving government funding must be accompanied by an extension of the premium
tax credits for health plans covered by the Affordable Care Act, which are set
to expire at the end of the year.
They are also demanding that
funding for public media outlets be restored and cuts to the Medicaid health
insurance program for poor and disabled Americans are reversed.
Congress’s Republican leaders have
refused to negotiate over their demands until the government is reopened, and
during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump repeated his threat to
single out Democratic-led states and cities for retaliation, if their lawmakers
do not back down.
“We will be making cuts that will
be permanent, and we’re only going to cut Democrat programs, I hate to tell
you,”
he said.
“So they will get a little taste of their own medicine.”
“It’s so stunning to me how
callous he can be to play political games and use American citizens as the
pawns in a political game,”
Republican House speaker Mike Johnson said at a
press conference.
The White House office of management
and budget has cancelled federal funding for projects in several Democratic-led
jurisdictions since the shutdown started, but does not yet appear to have
followed through on its threat to carry out mass firings of government workers.
In a bid to convince Senate
Democrats to drop their demands, Johnson has kept the House of Representatives
out of session since the shutdown began, since any compromise bill would need
his chamber’s approval. He signaled he would extend the recess into next week
if funding was not restored.
“Is it better for them, probably
to be physically separated right now? Yeah, probably is,”
he said, referring to
House lawmakers.
What legal limits exist on
withholding back pay?
Generally speaking, employers
cannot withhold back pay owed to employees. The U.S. Department of Labor
enforces laws that ensure workers receive the wages due to them, including
final paychecks and back pay awarded by a court or labor board.
Wage laws forbid withholding pay
for disciplinary reasons, such as the employee’s bad work performance, or based
on a suspicion of theft, except in very limited circumstances where the
employee has consented to that deduction.
Some voluntary deductions (such as
union dues or contributions to a retirement fund) can be deducted from
paychecks as well as legally mandated deductions (such as child support or
taxes); however, vluntary deductions must include clear authorization from
employees and mandated deductions must include a legal order to do so.
Finally, the employer cannot take
deductions that reduce the employees’ pay below the applicable minimum wage.
