The White House says mass federal layoffs begin amid the shutdown
The White House Budget Office said on October 10 that mass firings of federal employees had begun in an effort to put more pressure on Democratic lawmakers amid the ongoing government shutdown.
“Regional investment frameworks have begun,” Ross Vaught, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said on the social media site
A Budget Office spokesman said the cuts were “significant” but did not provide more immediate details.
The Department of Education is among the agencies affected by the new layoffs, a department spokesperson said on Oct. 10, without providing further details. The department had about 4,100 employees when Trump took office in January, but its workforce has been cut by nearly half amid mass layoffs in the first months of the Republican administration. At the beginning of the closure, it had about 2,500 employees.
Federal health workers were also fired on October 10, though a US Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson did not say how many or which agencies were hardest hit.
The White House expected it would pursue an aggressive layoff tactic shortly before the government shutdown began on October 1, and asked all federal agencies to submit force reduction plans to the Budget Office for review. She said the force reduction plans could be applied to federal programs whose funding would end in the event of a government shutdown that would otherwise go unfunded and “are inconsistent with the president’s priorities.”
This goes far beyond what typically happens in a government shutdown, which is that federal workers are furloughed but restored to their jobs once the shutdown ends.
Democrats have tried to expose the administration’s bluff, saying the dismissals may be illegal, and they appear to be supported by the fact that the White House has not yet implemented the dismissals.
But President Donald Trump said earlier this week that he would soon have more information about how many federal jobs would be cut.
“I’ll be able to tell you in four or five days if this continues,” Trump said Tuesday in the Oval Office while meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. “If this continues, it’s going to be huge, and a lot of these jobs will never come back.”
Meanwhile, the halls of the Capitol were quiet on October 10, the 10th day of the shutdown, as the House and Senate exited Washington, and the two sides prepared for a long shutdown battle. Senate Republicans repeatedly tried to persuade the opposing Democrats to vote for a temporary bill to reopen the government, but the Democrats refused because they were committed to expanding health care benefits.
Some Republicans on Capitol Hill have suggested that Mr. Vaught’s threats of mass layoffs have not been helpful to bipartisan talks on the funding crisis.
The top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, said in a statement that “the shutdown does not give Mr. Trump or Mr. Vaught new special powers” to lay off workers.
“This is nothing new, and no one should be intimidated by these scammers,” she added.
However, there was no indication that top Senate Democratic and Republican leaders were even talking about a way to resolve the impasse. Instead, Senate Majority Leader John Thune continued to try to alienate centrist Democrats who might be willing to cross party lines as the pain of the shutdown continues.
“It’s time for them to get a backbone,” Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, said during a news conference.
This story was reported by the Associated Press. Associated Press Education Writer Colleen Binkley and Associated Press Writer Mike Staub contributed to this story.