Furloughed Feds’ Paychecks Threatened
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The Office of Management and Budget on Friday quietly removed references to a 2019 guarantee to provide all federal workers with backpay at the conclusion of a lapse in appropriations. NextGov/FCW reports the sentence guaranteeing backpay to all furloughed workers as well as excepted workers has been removed.
Military.com reports the move by the Republican administration was widely seen as a strongarm tactic — a way to pressure lawmakers to reopen government. After the longest government shutdown in 2019, then-President Donald Trump signed the legislation ensuring federal workers receive back pay during any federal funding lapse. The 2025 OMB memo says back pay must be provided by Congress, if it chooses to do so, as part of any bill to fund government.
Trump indicated on Tuesday that he doesn’t intend to provide back pay to all federal workers. “But it really depends on who you’re talking about. But 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,” Trump said. Maryland Matters reports Democrats on Capitol Hill rebuffed the move, arguing it is another example of Trump attempting to circumvent the law.
The White House on Monday backed off Trump’s assertion that government employees were already being laid off due to the shutdown but warned job losses could result as the standoff stretched into seventh day, Reuters reports.
Trump told sailors Sunday not to worry about their paychecks, saying he will “always stand for” service members, and pay is “coming.” But a legislative effort to provide military pay despite a shutdown has languished without a vote, reports Stars and Stripes.
A top deputy to White House adviser Stephen Miller, Anthony Salisbury, accidentally leaked details of plans to send an elite army unit to Portland, in the latest intelligence leak by the Trump administration, reports The Guardian. Salisbury was observed using Signal in a public place to discuss a plan to deploy the army’s 82nd airborne division to Portland, the Democratic-run Oregon city which Trump has repeatedly castigated as being “war-ravaged.”
Nearly 120 Arkansas National Guard troops departed this week for a 13-month deployment to the southern border in Texas to support Customs and Border Patrol, reports Stars and Stripes. They brought four UH-72 Lakota aircraft along.
The Trump administration is offering unaccompanied migrant children $2,500 to leave the US voluntarily, according to a letter reported by Reuters that was sent to migrant shelters. Officials at Homeland Security confirmed a monetary offer was being made but did not specify an amount.
DefSec Pete Hegseth announced a new strike on an alleged drug-carrying vessel in the Caribbean on Friday, killing four people, Military Times reports. “Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route. These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!” Hegseth posted on X with a video showing a boat blown up in a strike.
The Space Force has assigned the first seven future launches under its National Security Space Launch Program: five to SpaceX and two to United Launch Alliance. Under firm-fixed price, indefinite-delivery contracts, SpaceX will receive $714 million and ULA $428 million, reports Breaking Defense.
The US Space Force is hoping to get its own permanent opposition force for training, this time in orbit. Specifically, the service is looking at sending up satellites into space to serve as aggressors to help Guardians prepare for potential conflicts, reports Task & Purpose.
The Maryland Food Bank is monitoring traffic at food pantries across the state, with its network of about 800 community partners anticipating a rise in federal workers and contractors hit by the federal government shutdown, reports Maryland Matters.
Maryland Matters provides a guide to help understand what’s open, what’s closed, and what might be delayed during the shutdown. The Oct. 6 edition of Morning Coffee provides a more thorough break down of closures and impacts within the federal government during the ongoing shutdown.
Trump spoke in Norfolk, VA, on Sunday to salute the Navy as it celebrates its 250th anniversary and to praise both the Navy and himself, reports Stars and Stripes. “Let’s face it, this is a rally,” Trump told the crowd of about 10,000 sailors in their dress-white uniforms. Navy planes flew overhead as the president began his speech, fueling the crowd’s energy and prompting many of the sailors to chant “USA! USA! USA!”
The Pentagon is imposing stricter fitness and grooming standards, lessening education requirements, and upending the DoD’s processes for reporting discrimination, fraud, waste, and abuse, reports Defense News. DefSec Hegseth has also ordered a review of the military’s education system curricula and training-school standards to identify any changes to the standards since 1990. “1990 seems to be as good as a place to start as any,” Hegseth said.
Among the new edicts, the military is to reduce the time personnel spend on cybersecurity training and look to automating information management systems to eliminate training requirements, reports DefenseScoop.
Almost a third of bosses have reported an increase in cyber-attacks on their supply chains over the past six months, as the fallout from devastating hacks on corporate stalwarts incuding Jaguar Land Rover highlighted a growing threat to businesses, says The Guardian.
The end of September marked the end of federal funding for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a major state, local, tribal and territorial cybersecurity information-sharing center, reports Route Fifty. The $10 million funding cut ends more than 20 years of federal funding, moving the agency to a paid membership model for governments.
Despite the ongoing shutdown, the Pentagon might — finally — select this week the defense company to design and build the Navy’s next stealth fighter, reports Reuters. Boeing and Northrop Grumman Corp are competing to produce the the F/A-XX, a carrier-based jet to replace the Navy’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fleet, which has been in service since the 1990s.
The Centers for Disease Control has announced a medical diagnostic code for Gulf War illness that will enable doctors and scientists to more effectively track, document, and treat the cluster of symptoms reported by tens of thousands of veterans who served in the early 1990s, reports Stars and Stripes.
Todd Arrington, director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, stepped down this week after a dispute with the Trump administration over gifting a sword in the museum’s collection to King Charles, reports Military Times.
The Navy SEAL Museum San Diego is opening its doors, unlocking exclusive access and insight into the world and ethos of US Navy SEALs and their predecessors, says Seapower Magazine.
Veterans of Foreign Wars has signed a deal with national beverage maker, Torch, to offer cannabis-infused drinks at VFW chapters in states and jurisdictions where recreational marijuana use is legal, reports Stars and Stripes. The initiative will place VFW branding on select Torch hemp-derived seltzer drinks at hundreds of VFW posts, with proceeds supporting veterans initiatives.
Democrat Amy McGrath, a retired Marine aviator, has entered the Senate campaign in Kentucky, vowing to be a “bulwark against authoritarianism” in launching a comeback bid after being trounced by Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell in 2020, reports Military.com. McGrath joins a growing field of Republicans and Democrats competing in the 2026 midterms for the seat occupied since the mid-1980s by McConnell, who is retiring when his current term ends.
Contacts awards are not being published during the government shutdown.
