Unions Sue Over Possible Government Layoffs During Shutdown (1)

Federal worker unions are suing over what they contend are the Trump administration’s unlawful threats of mass firings if Republicans and Democrats in Congress can’t reach a budget deal by midnight, forcing the US government to shut down.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco, comes hours before the current fiscal year ends, at which point each branch of the government must suspend or scale back operations unless lawmakers pass a spending bill. Amid the political impasse, President Donald Trump made commentssuggesting widespread layoffs are on the table.

“We may do a lot,” Trump said, responding to a question about the potential for firings.

Read More: Trump Threatens ‘A Lot’ of Firings in Looming US Shutdown

Lawyers for the unions allege that the Office of Management and Budget has adopted the “legally unsupportable position” that a lapse in funding approved by Congress would mean that agencies can carry out so-called “reductions in force” for programs that don’t align with Trump’s priorities.

“The cynical use of federal employees as a pawn in Congressional deliberations should be declared unlawful and enjoined by this court,” the unions argued in their complaint.

A White House spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.

For now, the unions aren’t yet asking a judge to take any emergency action before the midnight deadline.

Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement that the administration’s threats of mass firings were “immoral and unconscionable.” AFGE, along with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, are represented by advocacy groups Democracy Forward Foundation and State Democracy Defenders Fund along with the law firm Altshuler Berzon LLP.

Shutdown Looms

Republicans control both houses of Congress but need support from several Democrats to get the 60 votes needed for a spending measure to clear the Senate. Democratic leaders are seeking to extend health-care tax credits, prompting Trump and Republican members to lay blame for a shutdown with the minority party.

Trump has made shrinking the size and reach of the federal workforce a top priority of his second administration. Past lawsuits have challenged the shuttering or downsizing of agencies and offices, mass layoffs of employees with probationary status, and the president’s efforts to unilaterally remove members of independent bodies.

The last significant government shutdown occurred in late 2018 and early 2019 — during Trump’s first term — and lasted just over a month. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers were furloughed or worked without pay under carve-outs for employees deemed necessary to perform functions that involve “the safety of human life or the protection of property.” Employees received back pay once the government reopened.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated in a recent report that approximately 750,000 employees would be furloughed during the latest shutdown.

The case is American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO v. Office of Management and Budget, 25-cv-8302, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

(Updated with White House outreach and plaintiffs comment.)

--With assistance from Jennifer A. Dlouhy.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Zoe Tillman in Washington at ztillman2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Steve Stroth, Peter Blumberg

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