Smithsonian Institution and National Zoo close due to funding stalemate
The Smithsonian Institution and the National Zoo have closed amid a lack of federal funding due to continued closures.
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WASHINGTON – The White House has announced that additional mass layoffs of federal workers are planned as the federal government shutdown continues into its 14th day.
The Office of Budget Management said in an Oct. 14 statement published in
OMB, led by Secretary Russell Vought, added in a statement: “Pay our troops, pay our law enforcement, and continue RIF.”
President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that he had identified federal funds available to pay U.S. military personnel who are at risk of not getting paid Oct. 15 due to the government shutdown.
The additional RIF, or troop reduction warning, comes after the Trump administration began laying off federal employees during the government shutdown last Friday. A total of about 4,000 federal employees were laid off. But government officials told USA TODAY this is just the first wave of layoffs, with more to come.
The cuts, which were challenged in court by public employee unions, eviscerated the Department of Education, which President Trump pushed to completely abolish by executive order earlier this year. This includes eliminating nearly the entire department’s Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services.
Other departments affected by mass layoffs include Energy, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce and the Treasury Department.
Historically, non-essential federal employees have been furloughed with pay suspended during government shutdowns, but have not been subject to widespread federal layoffs. Approximately 750,000 federal employees were furloughed during the government shutdown.
The Trump administration has used the shutdown to advance its agenda of reducing the size of the federal government.
The administration has previously laid off tens of thousands of federal employees this year as part of Trump’s Office of Government Efficiency’s government cuts. President Trump also warned that if the government shutdown continues, he could cut what he calls “Democrat programs” from the government.
Two labor unions, the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, took preemptive action to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration to prevent layoffs after Trump warned them about layoffs.
The lawsuit alleges that terminating employees during the shutdown is an abuse of power that deprives federal employees of their right to back pay and violates the agency’s legal obligations.
President Trump has blamed Congressional Democrats for the government shutdown, and Democrats have repeatedly voted against the Republican-backed bill to fund the government through November 21 and called for health care changes to be included in the funding package.
X Contact Joey Garrison at @joeygarrison.
