The Maine Republican has been a vocal critic of OMB’s plan to institute layoffs.
By Jordain Carney
Sen. Susan Collins is the first high-ranking Republican to criticize White House budget director Russ Vought’s decision to move forward with a mass firing of federal workers — an early sign of GOP unease with the plans.
In a statement Friday, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee warned that “arbitrary layoffs” would undermine federal agencies, especially as the shutdown continues with no end in sight.
“I strongly oppose OMB Director Russ Vought’s attempt to permanently lay off federal workers who have been furloughed due to a completely unnecessary government shutdown caused by Senator Schumer,” said Collins, who is up for reelection in Maine next year.
“Regardless of whether federal employees have been working without pay or have been furloughed, their work is incredibly important to serving the public,” she added.
Collins’ statement comes after Vought announced in a social media post that so-called reductions-in-force across the federal government had begun.
The layoffs are a break with what typically happens in a government shutdown — where furloughed federal employees are brought back to work after the government reopens.
But Vought had threatened that mass firings would be a result of a shutdown should Democrats refuse to pass the GOP-led stopgap funding bill. He instructed agencies weeks ago to begin preparing layoff plays in a memo first reported by POLITICO.
It was not immediately known Friday afternoon the scope and scale of the firings.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a statement, said the blame for the firings rests squarely on the administration.
“Russell Vought just fired thousands of Americans with a tweet,” he said. “Let’s be blunt: nobody’s forcing Trump and Vought to do this.”
Vought’s other tactics during the shutdown have also sparked pushback from some Republicans, who worry that it risks muddling their shutdown strategy of exerting direct public pressure directly on Schumer and congressional Democrats.
In addition to firing government workers, Vought has also sought to eliminate funding for major projects in blue states amid the federal funding lapse.