White House threatens layoffs if the government shuts down : NPR
The director of the management and budget office, Russell Vought, attended a meeting of the cabinet with President Trump at the White House on July 8, 2025.
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Images Andrew Harnik / Getty North America
If the government ends on October 1, the White House said it would seek means to use the financing dispute to definitively eliminate certain federal workers, rather than send them temporarily to their homes on unpaid leave.
This proposal for “reduction of force” – described in a memo obtained by NPR on Wednesday – would be a significant change compared to previous government closings, when employees were temporarily on leave until a budget agreement is concluded.
The White House management and budget office has told agency leaders that a funding laps would give the administration the possibility of issuing “strength reduction” (RIF) notices to work on programs “do not comply with the president’s priorities”. The plans were reported for the first time by Politico.
This is the last push of the director of the budget of President Trump, Russell Vought, to aggressively reduce the government programs created and financed by the Congress, including foreign aid, expenses on Electric vehicle charging stationsand funding for Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Vought argued that the presidents – rather than the congress – have power to control more expensesDemocrats and the non -support office of the government (GAO) disagree.
The House Republicans adopted a bill that would finance the government at current levels until November 21. But in the Senate, where 60 votes are required to adopt the bill, the Democrats insisted to add a certain number of measures, including subsidies for insurance premiums of the affordable care law. They should expire, hitting Americans who buy insurance on Obamacare’s exchanges with shocking price increases this year.
Schumer calls the memo “an attempted intimidation”
Democratic leaders had to sit with Trump on Thursday to talk about the problems, but Trump canceled the meeting, saying that the Democrats were doing “non -serious and ridiculous requirements. “”
The White House said that it supported the bill adopted by the Republicans of the Chamber. In the memo, the OMB said that its dismissal opinions could be avoided if the Democrats decide to support the bill.
The head of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., described the memo “an intimidation attempt” in a statement published on Wednesday evening.
“It is not new and has nothing to do with the funding of the government,” said Schumer. “These unnecessary layoffs will either be canceled in court, or the administration will eventually recruit workers, just as they did as recently as today.”
Congress Democrats undergo an intense pressure from their voters to resist Trump after they provided the votes to adopt a six -month spending bill in March.
At the time, Schumer said that a closure would give Trump the power to choose and choose the departments and the agencies to reopen.
The plan for layoffs is a break in the Trump administration approach during its first mandate. In 2018, Trump refused to sign a Bipartite government financing bill because he did not include funding for his border wall, triggering a 35 -day stop, the longest ever recorded. But the administration worked to reduce the pain in the closure while keeping as much open government as possible, and committing to making workers on leave as quickly as possible.
