Trump Conveniently Lands On New Legal Theory That He Claims Could Deprive Feds Of Backpay
At a time when Republicans want to turn the screws on government-loving Democrats and their natural aversion to shutdowns, the Trump administration has conveniently stumbled upon a new statutory interpretation that, it threatens, could deprive federal workers of returns after the shutdown.
The Government Employees Treatment Act of 2019 ensures that all federal workers are paid retroactively after an appropriations run. The Trump administration, via a draft Office of Management and Budget memo, is disclosing its plans to argue that this law only applied to the 2019 shutdown, and that Congress must appropriate money specifically to reimburse furloughed feds.
“The supposed ‘new legal analysis’ is, to use a technical legal term, Horseshit,” former OMB General Counsel Sam Bagenstos posted on Bluesky. “What the law actually says is that when Congress enacts a law terminating a spear, furloughed employees are paid at the earliest possible date.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), who represents a disproportionate number of federal employees, is threatening legal action.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) does a little shucking, shrugging that this new information just reached his desk, but oh boy wouldn’t he like it if federal workers got paid.
President Trump, as always, is expressing thinly veiled strategic maneuvers under this new legal interpretation.
“I can tell you this: The Democrats have put a lot of people at great risk and danger, but it really depends on who you talk to,” he told reporters. “But for the most part, we’re going to take care of our people. There are some people who really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.”
Trump and OMB Director Russ Vought have already muddled their easy messaging—we, the adults in the room, wish we could reopen the government and get back to the American people, but the Democrats are unwilling hooligans—with their blood-soaked fight to weaponize the shutdown. Vought has publicly released the withholding of federal funds from Blue State Projects, and the administration continues to profess that it is about to begin mass layoffs (which have yet to materialize – at least one agency is busy reinstating previously laid off employees).
This makes their approach as the party opposing the shutdown more fraught when they continue to use it (or threaten to use it) to indulge in one of their favorite pastimes: brutalizing public officials.
-Kate Riga
Bondi: Oppo on everything
Attorney General Pam Bondi attended a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, the center of attention in Washington, D.C. Epstein, political prosecutions, Tom Homan money in a bag — there were plenty of Democrats aiming to squeeze her. Republicans prepared with a story of political woe, after announcing Monday that several lawmakers had their phone records reviewed by the FBI as part of the investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection.
In the end, Bondi barely testified, refusing to answer or dodging questions from Democrats.
The attorney general spent much of the nearly five-hour hearing personally attacking Democratic senators — notably Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Adam Schiff (D-CA) – instead of answering their tool questions. Every time she was faced with questions she didn’t like or want to answer, Bondi pulled a line from a bunch of Oppo’s campaign-style research with which she came to deflect and attack, playing with her audience from one to the White House.
“I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump,” Bondi told Durbin when Durbin tried to question him about the National Guard being deployed to Chicago.
(She used this same line with a different city name interrupted to dodge questions from other Democratic senators.)
“I’ve been on this committee for over 20 years. This is the kind of testimony you expect from this administration,” Durbin said in response. “A simple question of whether they had legal justification for deploying National Guard troops becomes grounds for personal attack. I think it’s a legitimate question. It’s my responsibility.”
Bondi also repeatedly tried to blame Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown, saying that was the reason law enforcement and his Justice Department employees were working without pay. Despite Bondi’s claims, Republicans control the White House, Senate and House and have refused to negotiate with Democrats.
– Emine Yücel
Rino Marjorie Taylor Greene
Unusual is the day when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) approvingly quote the words of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
Greene had tweeted Monday evening in support of extending subsidies to the Affordable Care Act, writing that while she doesn’t like the health care law, she supports an extension to prevent premiums from skyrocketing.
“Not a single Republican in leadership has talked to us about this or given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums doubling!!!” She wrote.
“I think this is the first time I’ve said it, but, on this issue, Rep. Greene said it perfectly,” Schumer said Tuesday on the Senate floor. “Representative Greene is absolutely correct.”
Jeffries, during his Tuesday press conference, supported a poster board of a tweet from Greene: “Hey, this is your daily reminder that insurance has become unaffordable for most Americans. Health, car and home. I want my party to make it a priority.”
-Kate Riga
VP Summit
On Monday evening, former Vice President Kamala Harris had a public conversation with Napheesa Collier, a WNBA player on the Minnesota Lynx and vice president of the players’ union.
The league is currently consumed by a labor struggle, as players negotiate higher salaries and a fairer revenue-sharing agreement in their collective bargaining agreement (WNBA players get 9.3% of league revenue, while NBA players get 49-51%). The stalled negotiations caught fire last week, when Collier used her exit interview to call out WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, who had dismissed concerns about ridiculously low salary floors (Caitlin Clark makes about $78,000 a year) and allegedly told them that players, including Clark, should be “grateful” for the platform the league gives them given.
“For so long, we’ve been trying to have these conversations and move the needle in these meetings that we would have with the league and with our leadership,” Collier said during his event with Harris. “I saw that nothing was changing. Coaches and players, winning and losing the same way, complained about the same things over and over again.”
“Whether I was going to be devastated for it or whether people were going to support me, I felt like what I was doing was right,” she added. “I felt like it needed to be said.”
Harris called Collier a “living example of courage.”
The players’ union and the league have until October 31 to negotiate a new collective agreement; A lockout may follow if an agreement is not reached.
-Kate Riga
In case you missed it
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Dispatch from the Supreme Court: Medical science still ‘uncertain’ when pushing against Supreme Court bias
Backchannel: Don’t believe the hype: Trump Bum-Rushing DC Reporters Edition
Most read story of yesterday
A new major constitutional clash breaks out in Oregon
What we read
Republicans post fake image of Oregon protest – using photos from South America – The Guardian
Memo to Bari Weiss Re: CBS News: You are doomed – the Verge
Rutgers professor moved to Europe after threats over Antifa accusations – Guardian
