WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is making this government shutdown not like any the nation has ever seen, giving his price range workplace uncommon authority to pick winners and losers — who will get paid or fired, which packages are lower or survive — in an unprecedented restructuring throughout the federal workforce.
Because the shutdown enters its third week, the Workplace and Administration and Price range mentioned Tuesday it is getting ready to “batten down the hatches” with extra reductions in power to return. The president calls price range chief Russ Vought the “grim reaper,” and Vought has seized on the opportunity to fund Trump’s priorities, paying the military whereas slashing jobs in well being, training, the sciences and different areas with actions which have been criticized as unlawful and are going through courtroom challenges.
Trump mentioned packages favored by Democrats are being focused and “they’re by no means going to return again, in lots of circumstances.”
Talking throughout an occasion on the White Home, Trump added, “We’re having the ability to do issues that we had been unable to do earlier than.”
With Congress at a standstill — the Republican-led Home refusing to return to session and the Senate caught in a loop of failed votes to reopen authorities as Democrats demand health care funding — the price range workplace rapidly stuffed the void.
From Mission 2025 to the White Home
Vought, a chief architect of the conservative Project 2025 coverage guide, is reshaping the scale and scope of federal authorities in methods just like these envisioned within the blueprint. It’s precisely what sure lawmakers, notably Democrats, feared if Congress didn’t fund the federal government.
Trump’s priorities — supporting the navy and pursuing his mass deportation agenda — have been largely uninterrupted, regardless of the closures. The administration discovered leftover tariff revenues to make sure the Women, Infants and Children meals support program didn’t shutter.
However the Trump administration is shuttering scores of different packages, firing staff dealing with special education and after-school programs and people guarding the nation’s infrastructure from cyber assaults. Greater than 4,100 federal staff obtained layoff notices over the weekend.
“This shutdown is completely different from earlier ones as a result of Donald Trump and Russ Vought and all of their cronies are utilizing this second to terrorize these patriotic federal workers,” mentioned Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., standing with federal staff Tuesday outdoors the White Home price range workplace.
Van Hollen mentioned it is “an enormous fats lie” when Trump and his price range director say the shutdown is making them hearth federal staff. “It’s also unlawful and we’ll see them in courtroom,” he mentioned.
Shutdown grinds into a 3rd week
Now on its 14th day, the federal closure is rapidly turning into one of many longest authorities shutdowns. Congress failed to fulfill the Oct. 1 deadline to go the annual appropriations payments wanted to fund the federal government because the Democrats demanded a deal to protect expiring well being care funds that present subsidies for folks to buy insurance coverage by means of the Inexpensive Care Act.
House Speaker Mike Johnson mentioned Tuesday he has nothing to barter with the Democrats till they vote to reopen the federal government. However there aren’t any indicators to date of that taking place as Senate Democrats have rejected a GOP invoice to reopen the federal government eight instances, most not too long ago on Monday night.
The Republican speaker welcomed OMB’s newest actions to pay some staff and hearth others.
“They’ve each proper to maneuver the funds round,” Johnson mentioned at a press convention on the Capitol. If the Democrats wish to problem the Trump administration in courtroom, Johnson mentioned, “carry it.”
Sometimes, federal staff are furloughed throughout a lapse in funding, historically with again pay as soon as authorities funding is restored. However Vought’s price range workplace introduced late final week that the reductions in forces had begun. Some 750,000 workers are being furloughed.
Navy pay, deportations on observe
On the similar time, Trump instructed the navy to search out cash to make sure service personnel would not miss paychecks this week. The Pentagon mentioned over the weekend it was capable of faucet $8 billion in unused analysis and improvement funds to make payroll.
On Tuesday, Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem mentioned her company was counting on Trump’s large tax cuts regulation for funding to ensure members of the Coast Guard are additionally paid.
“We at DHS labored out an progressive answer,” Noem mentioned in an announcement. Because of Trump’s “One Large Stunning Invoice,” she mentioned, “the courageous women and men of the US Coast Guard won’t miss a paycheck this week.”
In previous shutdowns, the OMB has overseen company plans throughout the lapse in federal fundings, guaranteeing which staff are important and stay on the job. Vought, nevertheless, has taken his function additional by talking brazenly about his plans to go after the federal workforce.
As businesses began making their shutdown plans, Vought’s OMB inspired division heads to think about reductions in power, an unheard-of motion. The price range workplace’s basic counsel, Mark Paoletta, recommended in a draft memo that the workforce is probably not robotically eligible for again pay as soon as authorities reopens.
‘Grim reaper’ replaces Elon Musk’s chainsaw
Trump posted an AI-generated video final week that portrayed Vought carrying a cloak and carrying a scythe, in opposition to the backdrop of the basic rock staple “(Do not Concern) The Reaper.”
“Each authoritarian chief has had his grim reaper. Russell Vought is Donald Trump’s,” mentioned Rep. Steny Hoyer, the senior Democrat from Maryland.
Hoyer in contrast the price range chief to billionaire Elon Musk wielding a chainsaw earlier this 12 months throughout the Division of Authorities Effectivity’s slashing of the workforce. “Vought swings his scythe by means of the federal authorities as thoughtlessly,” he mentioned.
In some ways, Trump’s tax cuts regulation gave the White Home an unlimited new allotment of federal funding for its precedence initiatives, separate from the common appropriations course of in Congress.
The package deal unleashed some $175 billion for the Pentagon, together with for the “Golden Dome” missile defend and different precedence initiatives, and one other $175 million for Homeland Safety, largely for Trump’s mass deportation agenda. It additionally included additional funds for Vought’s work at OMB.
Sure funds from the invoice can be found for use throughout the shutdown, in keeping with the nonpartisan Congressional Price range Workplace.
“The Administration additionally may determine to make use of obligatory funding supplied within the 2025 reconciliation act or different sources of obligatory funding to proceed actions financed by these direct appropriations at varied businesses,” in keeping with CBO.
The CBO cited the departments of Protection, Treasury and Homeland Safety and the Workplace of Administration and Price range as amongst people who obtained funds beneath the regulation.
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Related Press writers Will Weissert, Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
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