WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Donald Trump has signed a bill that will require some 800,000 federal employees to be compensated for wages lost or work performed during the partial government shutdown.

Wednesday’s bill signing was closed to the media. The House and Senate had voted to give the workers back pay whenever the federal government reopens.

The shutdown is in its fourth week with no end in sight.

Federal employees received pay stubs with nothing but zeros on them last week. Some posted photos of their empty earnings statements on social media as a rallying cry to end the shutdown.

The shutdown has resulted from a dispute over border wall funding. Democrats remain opposed to Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion. They say they’ll discuss border security once the government reopens.

Meanwhile, new lawmakers who attended a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House say the conversation was respectful, but none could name progress the talks made toward reopening shuttered government agencies.

Minnesota Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips said Wednesday that the fact that lawmakers of both parties were sitting down and talking with Trump was progress in itself. And New York Democratic Rep. Max Rose said trust was built within members of the group. He said both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence “spent a lot of time” with the Democrats, calling the talks “very sensible discussions that involved listening and speaking.”

Phillips said the group was not there to negotiate but “to better understand each other, which I think we did … and perhaps provide a little bit of daylight through which we can walk.”

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