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.