President Donald Trump's controversial director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, is being sued by a group including federal labor unions and the State Democracy Defenders Fund of former White House ethics chief Norm Eisen, to prevent him from taking advantage of any impending government shutdown to carry out mass firings of federal workers.
This lawsuit, filed in a federal court in San Francisco, comes amid reporting that the Trump administration plans to do precisely that, with Vought planning another round to lay off workers who were spared the initial bloodbath by tech billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force.
Mass purges of the federal workforce are a key part of the Project 2025 agenda, crafted before Trump's election with contributions from Vought, that calls for radically remaking the federal government in a far-right image.
"When shutdowns have occurred in the past, and pursuant to federal law, federal employees have been assigned into two categories: 'excepted' employees, who continue working during the shutdown but are not paid until appropriations resume; and 'non-excepted' employees who are furloughed during a shutdown and receive back pay after a shutdown ends," stated the suit. "Despite this well-established practice, the Trump administration has made unlawful threats to dismantle essential federal services and functions provided by federal personnel, deviating from historic practice and violating applicable laws, if a shutdown occurs."
Furthermore, the suit noted, Vought has specifically used the threats of layoffs as a threat to extort Democratic members of Congress to back off their condition for a resolution keeping the government open, which is to extend funding for health care subsidies that will expire this year, drastically raising premiums for millions of people on Affordable Care Act plans.
"These actions are contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious, and the cynical use of federal employees as a pawn in Congressional deliberations should be declared unlawful and enjoined by this Court," the suit continued.
This comes as even some Republican lawmakers are alarmed by the Trump administration's plans to defund various critical agencies during the shutdown, with Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) demanding an explanation on the possible defunding of a council of inspectors general who serve as key watchdogs for government corruption.
