Judge halts firings during government shutdown

What happened

A federal judge last week temporarily blocked the Trump administration from conducting mass layoffs of federal workers during the government shutdown, scuttling an administration plan to pressure Democrats into ending the now three-week-old standoff. Workers at the departments of Energy, Homeland Security, Treasury, and Health were among those to receive layoff notices, with White House budget director Russell Vought saying that “north of 10,000” federal jobs could be eliminated during the shutdown. The administration sent notices to 1,300 workers at the Centers for Disease Control—including analysts who monitor biological and chemical threats to the U.S.—then a day later scrambled to reverse more than half the firings, saying they were issued in error. At the Education Department, almost all employees in an office overseeing special education for 7.5 million children with disabilities received layoff notices. President Trump said more firings focused on “Democrat programs” were coming, but a day later U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ordered a halt to lay-offs, siding with labor unions who said the administration had not followed the law on reduction-in-force notices. The administration had “taken advantage” of the shutdown to “assume that all bets are off,” wrote Illston.

On Capitol Hill, there were no negotiations between Democrats, who insist any spending bill to reopen the government must include an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies, and Republicans, who say an extension can be discussed only after the government is funded. President Trump removed a possible pressure point by directing the Pentagon to use “all available funds” to pay active-duty service members. But some 600,000 furloughed federal workers could miss their first paycheck later this month if the government remains closed. With no progress afoot, said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), “we’re barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history.”

What the columnists said

Several weeks in, “the government shutdown is finally starting to bite,” said Siobhan Hughes in The Wall Street Journal. Flight delays are mounting as unpaid air traffic controllers call in sick. Cut off from further paychecks, federal workers are eyeing their savings. Smithsonian museums are shuttered, entrepreneurs can’t get small-business loans, homebuyers can’t close on mortgages without federal flood insurance, and executives are making business plans without Labor Department employment statistics and other crucial economic data.

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Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer bet that “as inconveniences mounted,” pressure would build on Republicans, and he’d be hailed by progressives for his toughness, said Jim Geraghty in National Review. The question now is how much hardship federal workers, who are overwhelmingly Democratic, are “willing to endure so that Schumer and Senate Democrats can appear to be fighters.” The answer seems to be a lot, said Catie Edmondson in The New York Times. Democrats say government workers are fed up with Trump-induced chaos at their agencies and fear of retaliation, and are telling them “to keep up the fight” even as Trump threatens to fire them.

You’d think Republicans might want to budge on Affordable Care Act subsidies, said Rex Huppke in USA Today. A recent poll showed 78% of Americans support extending the subsidies. And the spike in ACA insurance premiums that will result without an extension—going from an average of $800 a year to nearly $2,000—will fall heavily on Republican voters. Of the 24 million enrollees in the ACA marketplace, 77% live in states that Trump won in 2024. That should light a fire under Republicans, but “their fealty to the president has made them supine.”

As Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune rattle their sabers, other Republicans “are discussing potential pathways” to extend the tax credits, said Benjamin Guggenheim in Politico. Inside sources say “a menu of options” for compromise is under consideration, including minimum out-of-pocket premiums for ACA enrollees, income caps for subsidy recipients, and ending tax credits for new enrollees while keeping them for current ones.

The road to compromise is studded with land mines, said Ed Kilgore in New York. Trust is “at an all-time low.” And leaders of both parties are “acutely aware” that their bases will rebel at any sign of weakness, with Democrats “demanding a clear victory and Republicans resurfacing years of intense hatred of Obamacare.” Each side needs “to be able to spin any deal as a victory,” and no deal is possible without the buy-in of an unpredictable president bent on “crushing domestic opposition by every means available.” Something has to give eventually, but exactly what is not yet clear.