(Washington) The White House is considering massive and permanent layoffs in government agencies if the congress cannot vote a budget by September 30, according to an official document published Thursday on the Politico information site.
The end of the month is the deadline to adopt a budget, even temporary, and avoid a “Shutdown”, a paralysis of the federal state.
“During the last 10 fiscal years, Congress has systematically adopted (a budget) no later than September 30 in a Bipartisan manner,” recalls Republican Russel Vought, director of the management and budget office (OMB) at the White House, in a memo addressed to government agencies.
“Unfortunately, the Democrats of the Congress said they wanted to break this Bipartisan trend and block the government in the coming days because of a series of foolish requests.”
In this document consulted by AFP, Russel Vought asks federal agencies to design workforce reduction plans for employees working in programs that have no current funding, or source of external funding, and which are “not consistent with the president’s priorities” Trump.
The MEMB memo indicates that any reduction made after the financing date would be permanent.
In the event of “Shutdown”, a large part of the federal services are said to be stopped, with hundreds of thousands of unemployed technical officials, a chambarded air traffic, but also strong disturbances in the payment of many social assistance.
The Republicans have the majority of the two chambers of the Congress, but due to the Senate regulations, Donald Trump’s party will have to negotiate with the Democrats to obtain at least seven of their votes.
Democrats in particular demand that the Republicans will restore hundreds of billions of dollars in health expenditure.
The Republicans, for their part, argue that their seven -weekly provisional spending plan, funding the government until the end of November, is the only one on the table. No meeting is planned between President Trump and the Democrats before the end of the month.
If the congress adopts a budgetary bill before the deadline, “the additional stages described in this email will not be necessary,” says the MEMB memo.
The chief of the Democrat minority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, quoted by the New York Timescalled the memo “attempted intimidation”.
“Donald Trump has dismissed federal employees since the first day, not to govern, but to scare,” said Schumer. “It is not new and it has nothing to do with the funding of the government.”
