Congressional leaders have until the end of the month to agree on a deal to keep government agencies funded. But according to a new report, President Donald Trump's administration is using the possibility of a government shutdown to carry out its plans of permanently hollowing out federal agencies.
On Wednesday, Politico's Sophia Cai reported that agency heads have been handed memos from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) instructing them to submit reduction-in-force (RIF) plans in the event of a federal government shutdown. This effectively means that the administration is planning to carry out mass firings of federal workers, even though federal employees typically come back to work after Congress agrees on a funding bill.
"The move marks a significant break from how shutdowns have been handled in recent decades, when most furloughs were temporary and employees were brought back once Congress voted to reopen government and funding was restored," Cai wrote. "This time, OMB Director Russ Vought is using the threat of permanent job cuts as leverage, upping the ante in the standoff with Democrats in Congress over government spending."
According to the OMB memo, agencies have been ordered to compile lists of "programs, projects, and activities" that will run out of discretionary funding on October 1, where there is no alternative funding source available. Politico reported that the OMB's plan would amount to "permanently eliminating jobs in programs not consistent with President Donald Trump’s priorities."
If the administration followed through on this threat to unilaterally and permanently eliminate positions created by congressional appropriations, it would seemingly run afoul of Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which explicitly grants the power of the purse to Congress. One unnamed OMB official told Politico that agencies that rely on mandatory (versus discretionary) spending are exempted from the order, including Social Security, Medicare and the Department of Veterans' Affairs. And agencies carrying out Trump's priorities, like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, will be exempted from the RIF order.
Bobby Kogan, who is the senior director of federal budget policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, wrote on Bluesky: "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."
"It’s also extortive. 'Give us what we want in a funding fight, or we’ll hurt the country,'" he added.