WASHINGTON — The future pay status of federal workers emerged as a top issue on Tuesday, as the shutdown dragged past its seventh day without resolution.

With both sides entrenched in their positions, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) did not schedule a floor vote on a short-term spending bill that has previously failed five times along mostly partisan-lines.

Meanwhile, a memo floated by the White House Office of Management and Budget questioned whether furloughed workers were entitled to back pay under a 2019 law President Donald Trump signed during his first term after a series of shutdowns.

The memo argues that the law makes no automatic guarantee of backpay without congressional action, but lawmakers from both sides of the aisle countered that the intent of the law was to a

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