Federal employees are preparing for a possible government shutdown this week that one expert warned would be unlike any in U.S. history.
“This is very scary,” said Max Stier, CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit that aims to bolster the civil service. Stier and others are warning that the Trump administration might use a shutdown to further its goals of downsizing the federal workforce.
The administration has already “done enormous damage” to the federal workforce, Stier told reporters Monday. And with a shutdown looming, Stier added, the Trump team “has signaled that they would use the shutdown to further that damage and would have increased discretion to do so in a shutdown context.”
The White House budget office last week directed agencies to consider reduction-in-force notices for all staffers in programs, projects or activities where discretionary funding will lapse Wednesday, no alternative funds are available and the program doesn’t align with President Donald Trump’s priorities.
