The U.S. government shutdown has entered its eighth day. A draft memo is reportedly circulating in the White House stating that hundreds of thousands of workers who have been furloughed due to the government shutdown may not automatically receive their back pay once the government reopens. The memo reportedly states that Congress must approve new funding for the workers to get paid. Speaking to reporters yesterday, President Trump again threatened to use the shutdown to implement mass firings and cut public programs.

President Donald Trump: “You know, one of the things that we have is some advantage, you could say, but because of the shutdown, which I think they made a big mistake, we’re able to take out billions and billions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse. And they’ve handed it, you know, to — on a silver platter. And you know Russell Vought. He’s a serious person, very serious person. And he’s sitting there, and he’s getting ready to cut things.”