Posted on 09/25/2025 2:10:03 AM PDT by TigerClaws
The White House budget office is instructing federal agencies to prepare reduction-in-force plans for mass firings during a possible government shutdown, specifically targeting employees who work for programs that are not legally required to continue.
The Office of Management and Budget move to permanently reduce the government workforce if there is a shutdown, outlined in a memo shared with POLITICO ahead of release to agencies tonight, escalates the stakes of a potential shutdown next week.
In the memo, OMB told agencies to identify programs, projects and activities where discretionary funding will lapse on Oct. 1 and no alternative funding source is available. For those areas, OMB directed agencies to begin drafting RIF plans that would go beyond standard furloughs, permanently eliminating jobs in programs not consistent with President Donald Trump’s priorities in the event of a shutdown.
The move marks a significant break from how shutdowns have been handled in recent decades, when most furloughs were temporary and employees were brought back once Congress voted to reopen government and funding was restored. This time, OMB Director Russ Vought is using the threat of permanent job cuts as leverage, upping the ante in the standoff with Democrats in Congress over government spending.
“Programs that did not benefit from an infusion of mandatory appropriations will bear the brunt of a shutdown,” OMB wrote in the memo. Agencies were told to submit their proposed RIF plans to OMB and to issue notices to employees even if they would otherwise be excepted or furloughed during a lapse in funding.
Programs that will continue regardless of a shutdown include Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits, military operations, law enforcement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and air traffic control, according to an OMB official granted anonymity to share information not yet public.
The guidance comes as Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are locked in an impasse over funding, with just days before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30. The House passed a stopgap spending measure to float federal operations through Nov. 21, but Democrats in the Senate have refused to advance it, demanding that Republicans come to the table to negotiate a bipartisan package that could include an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.
The OMB letter notes that if Congress successfully passes a clean stopgap bill prior to Sept. 30, the additional steps outlined in this email will not be necessary.
The memo appears to vindicate warnings issued by some Democrats — most prominently Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — during the last shutdown standoff in March. Schumer at the time moved to allow a GOP-written spending bill to pass, arguing that a shutdown would be a “gift” allowing Trump and his deputies “to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now.”
Schumer says he has since revised that view, saying this month that the administration’s attacks on federal agencies “will get worse with or without [a shutdown], because Trump is lawless.”
He made a similar point Wednesday after POLITICO published details of the memo, calling it an “attempt at intimidation.”
“This is nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government,” he said. “These unnecessary firings will either be overturned in court or the administration will end up hiring the workers back, just like they did as recently as today.”
But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries struck a different note in an X post that appeared to take the threat seriously. He addressed it to voters in federal-worker-rich Virginia, who will soon elect a governor and other state officials.
“Their goal is to ruin your life and punish hardworking families already struggling with Trump Tariffs and inflation,” he said. “Remember in November.”
Suck it up buttercup
FAFO
warnings issued by some Democrats — most prominently Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer —
Make them permanent.
Comment on Schiffty withheld.
Trump just pulled one of those Br'er Rabbit , "don't throw me in the briar patch" moves. Splendid.
Our Whitehouse Homie doesn’t play....
Schmucky is going head to head with the guy who wrote The Art of the Deal.
That’s a susie Wiles trick if i ever saw it. Anyone that’s not deemed ‘essential’ is unemployed.
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.”
― Rahm Emanuel
the rats helping trump to cull the government herd, what a concept
Belgium breaks own record for longest period without government Brussels Times, 3 Aigust 2020
"On 1 June 2011, Belgium matched the record for time taken to form a new democratic government after an election, at 353 days, held until then by Cambodia in 2003–2004.[1] On 11 October 2011, the final agreement for institutional reform was presented to the media. A government coalition was named on 5 December 2011 and sworn in after a total of 541 days of negotiations and formation on 6 December 2011,[2] and 589 days without an elected government...."
2010–2011 Belgian government formation WIKI on government not being able to "form" itself.
Imagine the Democrats and RINOs having to stay home for months without staff......
I thought I just saw a headline that 100’s of federal workers who let go by DOGE are being rehired?
I seem to recall that the stock markets go up when the government shuts down.
Well, there's an opportunity if I ever saw one.
ACA "subsidies". Sounds like "subsidies" for 'Your Extended Car Warranty"
Hopefully, without the subsidies it will be easier for it to wither on the vine.
If the VA can't address it
My health care is:
-Passport
-Plane ticket outside the country
-Medical care outside the US -and its insurance companies, lawyers, multi-layered bureaucracies, add-ons, hanger-ons, govt. requirements and oversights and more bureaucrats, etc. etc).
IMO 95% of US healthcare costs are Added Costs to support laziness and incompetence serving a massive Organized Crime fraud and graft racket.
Saw a report where someone went to Turkey and for like a grand got a full body MRI, blood tests, etc. etc.
Your list tells you where the $ really goes here. It’s NOT healthcare.
Why not target employees who do no work even when the government is operating?
I wouldn't count on it this time, Schmucky.
This is brilliant!
What is it the Marxists always say? Oh, yes, never let a crisis go to waste.
I just returned from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Two weeks, several exams and Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell injection (MSCs and EVs) treatment for neck and spinal cord injuries cost $18K total (treatment, hotel, airfare, food, etc.).
In the US just the stem cell treatment alone costs ~$60K.
I go where I’m treated best.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.