SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from firing thousands of government workers based on the ongoing federal shutdown.
Among the fired employees to date are staff at Treasury responsible for overseeing the CDFI Fund. As the CU Daily has been reporting, the credit union trade groups have been pressing Treasury, the administration and Congress to reinstate the Treasury workers.
The judge’s ruling granted a request from employee unions in California.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston issued the temporary restraining order after concluding that the unions “will demonstrate ultimately that what’s being done here is both illegal and is in excess of authority and is arbitrary and capricious.”
No Clear Information
Illston said the Trump administration failed to provide her with clear information about what cuts are actually occurring, repeatedly changing its description and estimates of job cuts in filings before the court, and failed— including during a hearing in San Francisco — to make any argument for why such cuts are not in violation of federal law.
‘All Bets are Off’
“The evidence suggests that the Office of Management and Budget, OMB, and the Office of Personnel Management, OPM, have taken advantage of the lapse in government spending and government functioning to assume that all bets are off, that the laws don’t apply to them anymore,” Illston wrote, adding that that is not the case.
Moreover, Illston said the government justified providing inaccurate figures for the number of jobs being eliminated under its “reduction in force” orders by calling it a “fluid situation” — an argument she rejected.
High Human Cost
“What it is is a situation where things are being done before they are being thought through. It’s very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs,” she said. “And it has a human cost, which is really why we’re here today. It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated.”
The Trump administration has said it has dismissed about 4,000 workers under the orders, and OMB Director Russell Vought said Wednesday the number of job cuts will likely be “north of 10,000.”
The case was brought by the American Federation of Government Employees/
Illston, an appointee of President Clinton, has barred the Trump administration and its various agencies “from taking any action to issue any reduction in force notices to federal employees in any program, project or activity” involving union members “during or because of the federal shutdown.”
Colorado CUs Meet With Rep Over Shutdown
Separately, in Colorado Springs, Ent Credit Union said Rep. Jeff Crank (R-CO) held a roundtable with several local credit union reps to learn more about what credit unions are offering during the shutdown. Ent CU said Crank was especially interested in the assistance available to servicemembers (there are five local military bases, but that was before President Trump said members of the military would be paid.
Attendees included Ent CU, Air Academy FCU, Navy Federal, and USAA.
