"This is a disaster": Congress erupts at Trump's shutdown mass firings
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Sen. Susan Collins speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on July 15. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Members of Congress pushed back Friday against the White House announcing layoffs of federal workers as part of the government shutdown.
Why it matters: The blowback includes Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, who called the layoffs "arbitrary" and said she "strongly" opposes them.
- "Regardless of whether federal employees have been working without pay or have been furloughed, their work is incredibly important to serving the public," Collins said.
- Members of Congress from the Washington, D.C. area, who represent large swaths of the federal workforce, were even more strident in their criticism: "This is a disaster for Virginia," said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.).
Driving the news: Office of Management and Budget chief Russ Vought said in a brief and cryptic Friday afternoon post on X, "The RIFs have begun," referring to reductions in force.
- The Trump administration has for weeks been threatening to permanently fire federal workers in an effort to force Democrats to vote to reopen the government.
- The firings are happening at agencies across the federal government, including the Departments of Homeland Security, Commerce, Treasury, Education, Health and Human Services and Energy, according to reports.
What they're saying: "The mass firings Russ Vought and the Trump Administration announced today are cruel, illegal, and yet another attack on our economy," Beyer said in his statement.
- Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement: "They're callously choosing to hurt people—the workers who protect our country, inspect our food, respond when disasters strike. This is deliberate chaos,"
- "Cabinet secretaries and agency heads throughout the administration have warned against this kind of top-down mismanagement and the dysfunction it will cause," said House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.).
Zoom in: Many Democrats argued that the firings could be reversed through legal action, pointing to the many court battles already occurring over the administration's previous efforts to downsize the federal workforce.
- Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-Va.) told Axios in a statement: "As a former prosecutor, let me be clear: firing federal workers during a government shutdown is illegal."
- "There is nothing about the Republican shutdown that suddenly nullifies legal protections for federal employees," said DeLauro.
What to watch: Democrats on the House Budget Committee said in a two-pager that there could be legal consequences for Trump officials who send out RIF notices.
- "Agency leaders who direct this work and Human Resources employees who conduct this work run the risk of being prosecuted under the Antideficiency Act, which could result in fines or imprisonment," it said.
- House Oversight Committee Democrats urged federal workers who were "illegally fired" to call their "whistleblower tip line."
