Democrats blasted a federal government memo from Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, that advised federal agencies to plan for mass layoffs instead of furloughs should there be a government shutdown next week.
Trump opponents’ message was simple: They won’t be intimidated by what Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia called “mob boss-style extortion from Trump.”
The memo, which was obtained by NOTUS, instructed federal agencies to prepare for mass layoffs if the government shuts down at the end of the month. It comes as lawmakers are at an impasse over government funding, with both sides pointing fingers over who will be to blame should they fail to find a deal by the end of Tuesday. It also comes as the Trump administration continues to shrink the government and federal workforce, as many Democrats noted after the memo was first reported on Wednesday.
“This is nothing new: Donald Trump has spent the better part of a year chaotically and indiscriminately firing and then rehiring essential government workers,” the top Democratic appropriator in the Senate, Sen. Patty Murray, said in a statement. “The Constitution does not make the president a king, and a shutdown certainly doesn’t make him one either.”
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Murray continued. “Trump needs to sit down and negotiate with Democrats to prevent a shutdown of his own making.”
It’s not just Democrats. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins said federal employees should not be treated as “pawns” amid a potential shutdown.
“We must pass a clean, short-term continuing resolution to prevent a harmful government shutdown and allow Congress time to complete the annual funding bills,” Collins said in a statement to NOTUS. “Federal employees dedicate themselves to serving the public, and they should not be treated as pawns amid a needlessly partisan impasse.”
The Democratic leaders in both chambers said they would not be “intimidated” by the memo. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries put it plainly on X: “Get lost,” he wrote, addressing Vought directly.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer echoed the sentiment in a Wednesday night statement: “This is an attempt at intimidation. Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one — not to govern, but to scare. This is nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government.”
The reaction from Democrats, particularly from Schumer, was a departure from March, where he led several Democrats in the chamber in voting to avoid a shutdown. At the time, Schumer justified his vote by saying that “allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a worse option” than not voting to fund the government. As a result, the Democratic leader faced strong backlash from the party’s base.
But eight months into Trump’s second term, Schumer told CNN on Sunday, “The situation is a lot different now than it was then.”
Democrats have demanded an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies and for the GOP to restore Medicaid cuts in order to vote for a government funding bill. Republicans have rejected those calls: Trump canceled a meeting planned for Thursday with Schumer and Jeffries and Republicans have made clear they don’t plan to negotiate with Democrats.
The federal government is much smaller than it was at the beginning of the year. The director of the Office of Personnel Management estimated there will be roughly 300,000 federal workers less by the end of the year.
“The Trump Administration has already done everything, legal and illegal, to fire federal workers whose role or loyalty is insufficiently MAGA,” said Rep. James Walkinshaw, a Virginia Democrat who represents a region with one of the country’s highest concentrations of federal workers.
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, who also represents a large swath of federal workers in Northern Virginia, said that “not only will this further uproot the lives of Virginians in my district, but it will hurt our economy and punish working families.”
“The Trump Administration is using the looming government shutdown, created by Republicans alone, to continue the mass firings they have been doing all year, and I have no faith that they will stop regardless of what happens with government funding,” Subramanyam continued.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat in the House Appropriations Committee, called the White House’s threat “trademark chaos.”
“It is reckless fear-mongering designed to distract from Republicans’ failure to govern. Instead of coming to the table to negotiate lowering costs and addressing the health care crisis Republicans created, the White House is staging harmful charades like this that will impact all Americans,” she said in a statement.
Rep. Maxine Waters told NOTUS that laying off federal employees is “typical” of the Trump administration and hopes Republicans come to their senses.
“Democrats are ready to negotiate. We do not want to shut down this government. We’re begging them, please sit down with us on all of these issues. We’re hoping that they will come to their senses and they will be ready to negotiate with us.”
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