(Washington) White House Budget Director Russ Vought announced Friday on X that “staff reductions have begun” for federal civil servants while the United States is in a situation of budgetary paralysis.
Its services clarified to AFP that these were “significant” dismissals, without giving figures or information on the profile of the people concerned.
The threat of massive layoffs in federal services has been brandished by US President Donald Trump since the beginning, on 1er October, of the budget blockage for which the Republican majority and the Democratic opposition blame each other.
The “shutdown” placed hundreds of thousands of American civil servants on official leave, because they were considered to occupy functions that were not essential to the daily running of the country.
It is in this breeding ground that the American executive threatened to cause layoffs, affirming that they would be attributable to the Democratic camp, which refuses to give in to Congress.
Republicans are proposing an extension of the current budget, with the same spending levels, while Democrats are calling for an extension of subsidies for health insurance programs for low-income households.
Donald Trump’s party has a majority in both houses of Congress, but due to Senate rules, 60 votes out of 100 are needed to pass a budget. In the current state of forces, at least eight members of the opposition should rally to the republican text, but only three have done so so far.
The leaders of the presidential majority, however, hope to succeed in getting more to give in as the days go by.
Throughout the duration of the blockage, all of the more than 2.3 million federal civil servants are not paid, as are the more than 1.3 million military personnel.
The latter are expected to miss their first pay next Wednesday, a deadline which should increase popular pressure on Congress and the executive, given the importance of the armed forces in the culture of the United States.
