WASHINGTON: The White House said Friday it had begun mass layoffs of federal workers as President Donald Trump sought to amp up pressure on opposition Democrats to end a government shutdown that has crippled public services.
With the crisis set to go into a third week and no off-ramp in sight, Trump’s budget chief Russ Vought announced on social media that the administration had begun following through on threats to fire some of the 750,000 public servants placed on enforced leave.
The Office of Management and Budget, headed by Vought, told AFP the layoffs would be “substantial,” but gave no precise numbers or details of which departments would be most affected.
The president has repeatedly emphasized that he views cutbacks as a way of increasing pain on Democrats, and said last week he was meeting Vought to determine which of “the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM” should be targeted.
Democratic leaders in Congress have dismissed the threats as an attempt at intimidation and said mass firings would not stand up in court.
“A shutdown does not give Trump or Vought new, special powers to cause more chaos or permanently weaken more basic services for the American people, and the simple fact is this administration has been recklessly firing — and rehiring — essential workers all year,” said Patty Murray, the party’s lead senator on government funding.
“This is nothing new, and no one should be intimidated by these crooks.”
A US Treasury spokesperson told AFP the department had begun sending out notices of layoffs while the Health and Human Services Department said it had started firing nonessential workers “as a direct consequence of the Democrat-led government shutdown.”
Education officials were also reducing their workforce, a source with knowledge of staffing decisions at the department told AFP.
Public servants who hang onto their jobs still face the misery of going without pay while the crisis remains unresolved, with the standoff expected to drag on until at least the middle of next week.
Adding to the pain, 1.3 million active-duty service military personnel are set to miss their pay due next Wednesday — something that has not happened in any of the funding shutdowns through modern history.