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)
My knees hurt thinking about how that shin is facing