S.24 - Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019

Sponsored by a Senator from MD, signed into law by Trump. Vote was 411-7 with the only seven Nays coming from Republicans. Trump either agreed with it at the time or knew he couldn't veto it as it has more than 2/3 support and would override his veto right after.

Legally they all will get paid, and acrue paid leave as normal during a government shutdown. The fact that the money isn't set aside and able to be paid for say up to a year in case of said shutdown is kind of a disgrace. Government shutdowns like this didn't happen until "recent history" (Ronald Reagan).

So congress was definitely behind the ball, but likely never knew they'd have to face a domestic threat like this until now. (Or presumably when Trump won president the first time and they decided to write the bill to mitigate damages)