Washington — Democratic leaders in Congress on Thursday dismissed the White House’s recent threat that a government shutdown could spur large-scale layoffs of the federal workforce as “intimidation,” standing firm in their position ahead of the Oct. 1 funding deadline.
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget sent a memo to federal agencies on Wednesday telling them to consider reduction-in-force notices, or layoffs, for employees in programs, projects or activities that received discretionary funding. The RIF notices would come in addition to any furlough notices directing federal workers to stay home from work without pay if Congress fails to extend government funding by the deadline.
Democrats in Congress framed the move as an intimidation tactic by the White House and OMB Director Russ Vought, and said they intend to barrel ahead with their push to secure wins on key health care priorities in exchange for keeping the government funded.
“We will not be intimidated by Russ Vought, who’s completely and totally out of control,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said at a news conference on Thursday.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP 
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer shared a similar sentiment in a statement on Wednesday, calling the memo “an attempt at intimidation.”
“Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one — not to govern, but to scare,” Schumer said. “This is nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government.”
Democrats have repeatedly pushed for negotiations in the funding fight, looking to extract a more favorable outcome using one of their only points of leverage with Republican majorities in the House and Senate. Earlier this month, Democrats introduced a counteroffer to a GOP-led bill to keep the government funded that would also extend expiring health insurance subsidies.
The House approved a Republican measure to extend funding for seven weeks. Both the GOP bill and the Democrats’ proposal fell short in the Senate, leading to the current stalemate.
After the House approved its bill, GOP leaders extended the lower chamber’s break past the Oct. 1 deadline to fund the government, putting pressure on the Senate to approve their proposal. But Jeffries said on Thursday that the House-passed continuing resolution is “dead on arrival” in the Senate. He said it’s “unclear” to him why House Republicans have left D.C. and have “decided they don’t even want to have a conversation with Democrats to reach a bipartisan agreement.”
“Republicans control the House, the Senate and the presidency,” Jeffries said. “If the government shuts down, it’s because they want the government to shut down.”
Jeffries and Schumer had also pushed for a meeting with President Trump earlier this week. But Mr. Trump canceled the meeting, citing the Democrats’ demands, saying “no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive.”
On Thursday, Jeffries said “the Democratic position is clear: we will meet and sit down anytime, any place with anyone, including the president, who canceled the meeting because the Republicans have determined that they want to shut down the government and hurt the American people.”
Aaron Navarro
contributed to this report.
