This podcast is supported in part by the New England Innovation Academy in Marlborough, Massachusetts,

where today's students become tomorrow's innovators by discovering their passions and purpose while preparing for what's next,

reimagining education with a future-focused curriculum, entrepreneurial mindset, and real-world application,

currently enrolling grade 6 through 12, day and boarding students.

Learn more at NEI Academy.org. As the government shutdown hits the one week mark with no end

in sight, President Trump today issued a new threat saying that furloughed federal workers may not be

reimbursed with back pay once the government reopens. For the most part, we're going to take care of our people.

There are some people that really don't deserve to be taken care of,

and we'll take care of them in a different way, okay?

That reverses what's been longstanding policy

and possibly goes against a 2019 law that ensures back pay for federal workers.

Here with more on this is our White House correspondent,

Liz Landers. Liz, it has been a very busy day for you. Yes. So what exactly is the administration

threatening to do here and why? So PBS NewsHour obtained this memo. It's a draft memo that was

written by the General Counsel at the Office of Management and Budget. And in it, they believe the administration has the interpretation of that 2019 law,

that they actually don't have to pay these furloughed federal workers any kind of back pay.

Now, that 2019 law was passed after the longest government shutdown in history to give protections to employees so that they

would be assured to get back pay after that kind of shutdown. And it was President Trump who signed.

And it was President Trump who signed it. Excellent point. In this interpretation from this new

OMB legal counsel, they're basically saying that that 2019 amendment gives a permanent authorization for the furloughed workers to get back pay once the federal government reopens, but it does not require it.

There's also another sort of addendum in there that the administration is leaning into saying that the Congress, that when they reopen the government, has to put this, the federal furloughed

worker back pay into whatever funding bill they're doing. So they're trying to find some loopholes

...