WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Senate is once again voting on reopening the government. It’s now been 14 days since the shut down began and the White House said more layoffs will happen if the shut down continues.
“OMB is making every preparation to batten down the hatches and ride out the Democrats’ intransigence. Pay the troops, pay law enforcement, continue the RIFs, and wait.” That’s the message from the White House Office of Management and Budget sent out Tuesday morning. It appears the administration is ready to buckle down for a long shut down, even threatening more firings, which is referred to here as RIFs, or reductions in force. We’re told so far the administration has let go nearly four-thousand workers since the shut down began.
“Democrats have been very clear: we’re not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the healthcare of the American people,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D- NY), House Minority Leader.
On the Hill, both sides of the aisle still seem not to be meeting at the negotiating table.
“Republicans continue to refuse to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, which is going to result in tens of millions of Americans experiencing dramatically increased premiums, co-pays and deductibles,” said Rep. Jeffries. “All across the country including most significantly in states that Donald Trump won.”
“We did not load up the temporary funding bill with any Republican priorities or partisan priorities at all,” said Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R- LA). “I don’t have anything that I can take off of that document to make it more palatable for them.”
Johnson added that Republicans are “not playing games”.
“They’re playing a game, we’re not,” said Speaker Johnson. “The strategy is to do the right and obvious thing and keep the government moving for the people.”
We reached out to OMB and asked about how many more layoffs they will issue after their statement on Tuesday. We did not hear back from them.
