Mike Johnson Says ‘Of Course’ Furloughed Workers Should Be Paid, Breaking With Leaked White House Memo

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) weighed in on whether or not furloughed federal workers should receive back pay on Tuesday during a press conference on Capitol Hill.

The topic grabbed headlines ahead of the presser after an Axios report revealed “a draft White House memo” argued that “furloughed federal workers aren’t guaranteed compensation for their forced time off during the government shutdown,” reported Marc Caputo, citing several sources who described the document.

Johnson offered two takes on the issue, one suggesting there might be a legal basis to deny workers their pay and another saying he “of course” believes they should be paid.

“I hope that the furloughed workers receive back pay, of course. We have some extraordinary Americans who serve the federal government — they serve valiantly and they work hard and they serve in these various agencies doing really important work,” Johnson told a reporter.

During the same presser, however, Johnson also said, “It is true that in previous shutdowns, many or most of them have been paid for the time that they were furloughed. But there is new legal analysis. I don’t know the details. I just saw a headline this morning. I’m not read in on it, and I haven’t spoken to the White House about it.” He added:

But there are some legal analysts who are saying that that may not be appropriate or necessary in terms of the law requiring that back pay be provided. So I’m sure there will be a lot of discussion about that. But there are legal analysts who think that that is not something government should do. If that is true, that should turn up the urgency and the necessity of the Democrats doing the right thing here—even more pain for more people. So we’ve got to figure it out.

Johnson’s remarks appear to suggest that the GOP is looking to keep the threat of not paying furloughed workers as a bargaining chip to try and leverage the Democrats to end the shutdown, even though Johnson is making clear he wants to see the workers paid as a matter of principle.

Watch the clips above.