White House budget office threatens mass firings if government shuts down
By: Adam Cancryn , Tami Luhby (CNN)
Certainly not business as usual. Democrats' political theater may have very real consequences, this time.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The White House budget office is telling federal agencies to prepare plans for mass firings in the event of a government shutdown – an apparent threat by the Trump administration amid a standoff with congressional Democrats over federal funding.
The directive, outlined in an Office of Management and Budget memo to agencies and obtained by CNN, represents a sharp break from the government’s handling of past shutdown scenarios.
In the memo, OMB directs agencies to identify programs whose funds will lapse if Congress fails to meet the September 30 funding deadline and that have no alternative source of funding. Those programs should then be targeted for sweeping reductions in force that could permanently eliminate jobs that are deemed “not consistent” with President Donald Trump’s priorities.
“We remain hopeful that Democrats in Congress will not trigger a shutdown and the steps outlined above will not be necessary,” OMB wrote in the memo.
An OMB spokesperson declined to comment. Politico first reported the details of the memo.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the memo “an attempt at intimidation.”
“Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one—not to govern, but to scare,” Schumer said in a statement Wednesday evening. “This is nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government. These unnecessary firings will either be overturned in court or the administration will end up hiring the workers back, just like they did as recently as today.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries slammed OMB Director Russell Vought in a post on X.
“Listen Russ, you are a malignant political hack,” Jeffries wrote. “We will not be intimidated by your threat to engage in mass firings. Get lost.”
The threat of mass job losses across the government is likely to further intensify the partisan funding showdown over the next week, where Democrats have demanded a series of concessions in exchange for keeping the government open into November. Most notably, Democrats are insisting on an extension of the enhanced federal subsidies for Affordable Care Act coverage, which are set to lapse at year’s end.
The White House and congressional Republicans have so far refused, insisting on a so-called “clean” extension. Trump earlier this week canceled a planned meeting with Democratic leaders to discuss the funding impasse, issuing a blanket rejection of their demands.
The OMB memo on Wednesday doubled down on that stance, calling Democrats’ position “insane” and noting that it would continue to fund “core Trump Administration priorities” in the event of a shutdown.
The planning for mass firings in other areas of government, the office added, would proceed unless Democrats take up the administration’s position and pass a clean funding extension.
OMB makes clear in the memo that it sees the shutdown as an opportunity to further downsize the federal workforce. Typically in a shutdown, federal agencies determine what functions and employees are deemed essential and must continue during the impasse. These workers remain on the job, often without pay until Congress acts. Staffers not considered essential are furloughed until lawmakers pass a funding package. Federal employees receive back pay once the shutdown ends.
However, OMB is urging departments to issue “reduction in force” notices to employees – both those being furloughed and considered essential – in the programs whose funding has lapsed and aren’t consistent with the president’s priorities.
Once lawmakers pass a funding bill, “agencies should revise their RIFs as needed to retain the minimal number of employees necessary to carry out statutory functions,” the memo states.
Gutting the federal workforce
The memo is the latest – and perhaps furthest reaching – effort by the Trump administration to overhaul and shrink the size of the federal workforce. In February, Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to draw up plans for a large-scale reduction in force. The results were mixed, with some agencies letting go sizeable portions of their staffs, others walking back at least part of their layoffs and still others asking some employees who departed to return to their jobs. .
The current effort was foreshadowed in another memo that OMB and the Office of Personnel Management sent to agencies in late February concerning the executive order. The memo directed department leaders to identify by March 13 “all agency components and employees performing functions not mandated by statute or regulation who are not typically designated as essential during a lapse in appropriations.”
In another unusual move, OMB has yet to post agencies’ shutdown contingency plans on its website, even though the federal government’s funding will lapse in less than a week unless Congress acts. In its memo, OMB wrote that it had received updated lapse plans from “many, but not all” agencies to date. The plans detail which functions and employees the administration deems are essential during a shutdown.
Every government shutdown is different, but key services – including Social Security payments, law enforcement, air traffic control and border patrol – continue uninterrupted. Previous shutdowns have closed national parks and museums; stalled food inspections; canceled immigration hearings; and delayed some federal lending to homebuyers and small businesses, among other impacts.
In March, the last time a federal government shutdown loomed before being averted, more than 1.4 million employees were deemed essential and would have had to report to work, according to Rachel Snyderman, managing director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. About 750,000 of them would have continued to be paid since their salaries were funded through other sources.
Another nearly 900,000 workers would have been furloughed without pay. (Snyderman noted that the estimates did not include the layoffs and departures that occurred in the early weeks of the Trump administration.)
The American Federation of Government Employees blasted Vought for saying he intends to pursue another round of “illegal mass firings,” similar to efforts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency earlier this year. Such a move would add to the chaos of a shutdown, AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement Thursday.
“Federal employees are not bargaining chips. They are veterans, caregivers, law enforcement officers, and neighbors who serve their country and fellow Americans every day,” he said, urging lawmakers to come to a compromise and avert a shutdown. “They deserve stability and respect, not pink slips and political games.”
Federal employees will again be “collateral damage” as lawmakers play a “game of chicken,” Doreen Greenwald, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said in a statement.
“And this time even more so with the Administration’s latest illegal threat of mass layoffs if the government shuts down,” she said. “This needs to stop.”
Left-leaning advocates decried the idea of using a shutdown to gut the federal workforce.
“Setting aside the question of legality, this would be an action of enormous self-harm inflicted on the nation, needlessly ridding the country of talent and expertise,” said Bobby Kogan, a former OMB official in the Biden administration and senior director of federal budget policy for the Center for American Progress. “It’s also extortive. ‘Give us what we want in a funding fight, or we’ll hurt the country.’”
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Hey, maybe Jimmy Kimmel can turn things around with his "MAGA are fascists" schtick.
So, if there is no shut down are they planning not to eliminate jobs that are deemed "not consistent" with Trump's so-called priorities? Does anyone believe they aren't completely full of shit?
Yup. But that was the directive earlier this year. The departments and agencies balked. The current OMB planning to RIF employees if the government shuts down is a continuation of earlier planning.
This assclown is part of the problem.
And it's the Democrats causing it. AGAIN.
So NOW they are worried about legalities? Give me a break.
Let's go with the Schumer shutdown.
I'm all for it. The dems get the blame this time and we know what happens next year.
Its a form of extortion.
Yes, the Democrats' threat of a government shutdown is a form of extortion. This time there may be consequences for Democrats' extortion.
Really? You dont recall any Republican threats of a shutdown?
The Democrats want concessions from the GOP to avert a shutdown. Thats the way it works in this country.
Republican's are making the threat now are they?
I'm not going to answer such a dumb question.
But you'll continue to ask them.
I don't recall Republicans shutting down government to increase spending. Republicans typically threaten to shut down government to cut spending and shrink the size of government. Democrats have shut down government a number of times to obtain spending increases and expansion of government programs.
and ?
so what?
The Republicans gave millions of dollars of tax cuts to billionaires. We dont like it.
and when Republicans want concessions you call them terrorists and hostage takers.
ROFL
When Republicans shut down government they got the blame.
This time the democrats are going to shut the government down. Don't they get the blame?
And what do Democrats do with all that tax revenue? Give the money to insurance companies?
Only the Trump Admin would fire, rehire, and then fire people again. LOL...
In this case, this would be an opportunity to replace more government workers with loyalists.
I certainly wouldn't put it past the great MAGA thinkers running around Trump, though ever since the Great Doge Purge they've been trying to re-hire workers back to mission critical jobs they were trained to do. There was another article online about rehiring federal workers just yesterday. Not hiring new workers, rehiring old workers at the GSA.
There have been a couple other government shutdowns without permanent layoffs of government workers. Why would they be "necessary" this time?
Getting past the right wing bloviation:
The President is a Republican.
The Senate is controlled by Republicans.
The House is controlled by Republicans.
The Republicans in Congress refuse to negotiate with the Democrats.
Trump refuses to even meet with any Democrats to discuss their concerns.
Remind me again why the Democrats would be at fault for shutting down the government, completely controlled by Republicans...
DOGE fired thousands and thousands of federal workers from many government departments.
In a big turn around largely not covered in the media the Trump administration has rehired or tried to rehire many of those employees from critical agencies who were mistakenly fired by DOGE.
The job cuts have continued but also there is a rehiring blitz, they cannot make up their minds.
So the DOGE plan was to eventually cut thousands more jobs, close several agencies and claim victory.
Isn't the threat of job cuts a moot point since those jobs were going away by design anyway.
How is this any greater of a threat than DOGE and what was already the plan for eliminating jobs?
It's just word play and a false talking point to blame anyone else besides the Trump administration.