Yes, they did it again. A failure to reach an agreement on funding the federal government has led to another government shutdown as of today.
In a 2011 interview with NBC, now President Donald Trump said: “If there is a shutdown, I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the President of the United States. He’s the one that has to get people together.”
The U.S. government has endured 22 shutdowns in the last 50 years, including the longest shutdown which lasted for 35 days during Trump’s first term in office, from December 2018 to January 2019. The first shutdown lasted for 11 days under President Gerald Ford in 1976. A shutdown under President Barack Obama in 2013 lasted for 17 days. Two other shutdowns during Trump’s first term happened briefly in 2018.
After Trump mentioned a mass firing of federal employees if a government shutdown happened, the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California challenging his threats yesterday.
The lawsuits assert that the Office of Management and Budget, through Director Russ Vought, violated the law through its threats to engage in the mass firing of federal workers during a shutdown. The lawsuit names as defendants the Office of Personnel Management and Director Scott Kupor, which issued unlawful and unprecedented instructions that federal employees may perform work during the federal government shutdown in order to carry out mass RIFs.
“Announcing plans to fire potentially tens of thousands of federal employees simply because Congress and the administration are at odds on funding the government past the end of the fiscal year is not only illegal – it’s immoral and unconscionable. Federal employees dedicate their careers to public service – more than a third are military veterans – and the contempt being shown them by this administration is appalling,” AFGE National President Everett Kelly said.
AFGE and AFSCME are represented by Altshuler Berzon LLP, Democracy Forward and the Democracy Defenders Fund and are asking the court to declare that OMB unlawfully exceeded its statutory authority in ordering the shutdown firings and to invalidate any actions agencies take pursuant to the order. The Trump administration’s plan to fire federal employees during a government shutdown is an unlawful abuse of power designed to punish workers and put pressure on Congress, according to the lawsuit. Government shutdowns in decades past meant that employees are either furloughed without pay and guaranteed back pay when the shutdown ends or “excepted” and required to work until funding is restored.
However, in 2025, the OMB memorandum breaks from the long-standing framework and directs agencies to issue mass RIF notices that could strip employees of back pay rights, violate agencies’ statutory duties and target workers whose jobs are essential to protecting life and property during a shutdown. In doing so, the administration is misusing the shutdown process for partisan ends and violating the very laws that govern how shutdowns are supposed to function.
ICYMI: Government shutdowns in the news
- ‘This makes absolutely no sense’: Warner says federal government shutdown harms Virginia most
- Paycheck to paycheck: Legislation protects federal contract workers if government shuts down
- Government shutdown avoided with deal days ahead of funding expiration date
- We are hurtling toward another government shutdown
- Experts | Keeping National Parks open during shutdown ‘reckless’
“The Trump administration is once again breaking the law to push its extreme Project 2025 agenda, illegally targeting federal workers with threats of mass firings due to the federal government shutdown. If these mass firings take place, the people who keep our skies safe for travel, our food supply secure, and our communities protected will lose their jobs. We will do everything possible to defend these AFSCME members and their fellow workers from an administration hell-bent on stripping away their collective bargaining rights and jobs,” AFSCME President Lee Saunders said.
According to Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, the groups are suing because Trump is using civil service as a bargaining chip to march Americans into a government shutdown. Playing games with the livelihoods of federal workers who do the work of Americans is cruel and unlawful.
“Since inauguration, this administration has pursued a harmful Project 2025 agenda, attacking community programs and charities, lawyers, schools, private companies, law firms, judges, universities, public servants, and the programs, foundations, and civil servants working to deliver services to people and keep communities safe. No one’s lives have been made easier or better by these actions, and we will continue to meet these attacks in court. We are honored to again represent AFGE and AFSCME in protecting the American people from the Trump-Vance administration’s callous and unlawful agenda,” Perryman said.
The Trump administration must be stopped from using a government shutdown as an excuse for another illegal attack on federal workers, according to Democracy Defenders Fund Executive Chair Norm Eisen.
“The Vought memo is not only unlawful, it’s just plain wrong. A shutdown will already do enough damage without adding improper firings to the mix. This lawsuit seeks to stop these outrageous actions,” Eisen said.
In defiance of the laws that govern federal government shutdowns, Stacey Leyton of Altshuler Berzon LLP said the Trump administration is threatening to fire a mass amount of federal employees to gain political advantage and carry out an agenda to dismantle the American government.
“The administration must act within the constraints of applicable law, and we will ask the federal courts to hold them accountable to that obligation,” Althshuler said.
A large percentage of federal workers live and work in Virginia.
The Democratic candidate for Virginia governor, Abigail Spanberger, said that Americans in her state already face the impacts of DOGE, tariffs and attacks on their healthcare coverage. Now the Commonwealth also faces “totally unnecessary job cuts as President Trump promises to enact mass firings.” Meanwhile, her Republican opponent Winsome Earle-Sears, continues to fail Virginians by not standing up for families, the workforce and the economy.
“Just yesterday, when given multiple opportunities to publicly ask the president to stop further cuts to Virginia jobs, she outright refused to do so,” Spanberger said Wednesday.
According to Spanberger, the Commonwealth needs a governor who will put Virginia first, regardless of which political party is in the White House.
“President Trump must reverse course and work in good faith to end this shutdown as soon as possible. And we need leaders in Richmond who will demand this of the president, not use this moment as an opportunity to punish even more Virginians.”
Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan represents Virginia’s Fourth District and said that Republicans control both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House, as well as the White House.
“They had every tool at their disposal to avoid a government shutdown. Yet their actions, or lack thereof, these past few weeks have caused immense uncertainty for millions of Americans and their livelihoods, amidst a health care and affordability crisis of their own making,” McClellan said.
Virginia’s economy and communities “will be hit especially hard” because the Commonwealth has the second highest number of federal employees. Small businesses that are waiting on loans to process and families worried about what the future holds will also be affected by the shutdown.
“From day one of the 119th Congress, Democrats have stood ready to craft bipartisan funding legislation that meets the needs of the American people, just as we did in December. Republicans have rejected us at every turn. From a March extension that hurt veterans, seniors and children to the Big Ugly Law that ripped health care and food assistance from millions and now this government shutdown, the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans decided they would rather raise health care premiums, shut down the government and lay off our federal workforce than take action,” McClellan said.
McClellan said that she and her Democrat colleagues will remain in Washington, D.C. ready to negotiate a “funding bill that ensures the health, safety and economic well-being of every American and addresses the health care crisis. I urge Republicans to return to Washington and work with us to do just that and end their shutdown.”
After Republicans blocked passage of a federal funding bill on Tuesday, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine, both of Virginia, released a joint statement.
“Once again, Republicans have rejected a commonsense funding bill that would keep the government open, protect Americans’ healthcare and bring down the crushing costs they’re facing thanks to Republican policies. As soon as tomorrow, millions of families will begin receiving notices that their health care premiums and deductibles are set to skyrocket next year – direct consequences of Republican choices,” Warner and Kaine said.
The Virginia senators referenced Trump’s 2011 remark to NBC: “By his own standard, this looming shutdown is a failure of President Trump’s leadership.”
“Congress cannot afford more delay. It’s well past time for the president and congressional Republicans to stop playing games, get serious and do their jobs – before the American people are forced to pay the price.”
Support AFP
Share
Rebecca Barnabi
