White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned Monday that government layoffs are coming if Democrats don’t prevent a shutdown by Tuesday, days after President Trump’s budget office directed agencies to prepare for mass firings.
“There will be if Democrats don’t keep the government open,” Leavitt said when asked if there will be layoffs as a result of a shutdown.
Trump is set to meet with the four top congressional leaders at the White House later Monday. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) have both said they’re hopeful they can prevent a shutdown.
“There is nothing to negotiate when you have a clean CR [continuing resolution],” Leavitt told reporters Monday morning. “We are nearing a government shutdown; we are nearing a funding deadline. The president wants to make this deadline. He wants to keep this government open.”
Leavitt told Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” that the White House’s position ahead of the meeting is demanding “a commonsense, clean funding resolution, a continuing resolution to keep the government open.”
“The president is giving Democrat leadership one last chance to be reasonable, to come to the White House today to try to talk about this, and now is not the time to try to get political points against Donald Trump,” she said.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent a memo last week to agencies directing them, in the event of a government shutdown, to “use this opportunity to consider reduction in force (RIF) notices for all employees in programs, projects, or activities.”
Shutdowns typically result in furloughs of government workers, who are temporarily put on leave before receiving back pay when they eventually return to work. The OMB appears to be suggesting permanent layoffs this time around.
Congressional Republicans and the White House are looking to place the blame on Democrats if funding expires by the end of the day Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Sunday that Democrats have taken “the federal government as a hostage,” blaming them for wanting “a whole laundry list of things” to fund the government.