{"id":14177,"date":"2025-10-07T21:21:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T21:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/ap-reader-question-is-it-legal-to-fire-furloughed-federal-workers-during-a-shutdown\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T21:21:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T21:21:19","slug":"ap-reader-question-is-it-legal-to-fire-furloughed-federal-workers-during-a-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/ap-reader-question-is-it-legal-to-fire-furloughed-federal-workers-during-a-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"AP reader question: Is it legal to fire furloughed federal workers during a shutdown?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/author\/meg-kinnard\">             <picture data-crop=\"60x60\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"60\" height=\"60\"><source width=\"60\" height=\"60\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"60\" height=\"60\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/94d0281\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2072x2072+0+0\/resize\/60x60!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F70%2Fee%2F364cb5ca4ccd9f5f3cb59bf08f62%2Fimg-1558.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>                                <bsp-timestamp data-timestamp=\"1759765083000\" data-recent-thresholdinhours=\"1\">                    <template data-date-tpl>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]<\/template>                    <span data-date><\/span>                <\/bsp-timestamp>            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>                                        <bsp-page-actions>                            <\/bsp-page-actions>                                                                                            <\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Here&rsquo;s a question about the shutdown submitted by an Associated Press reader, G: <\/p>\n<h2>Is it legal to fire furloughed federal workers during a shutdown?<\/h2>\n<p>This question has prompted a fierce conversation, and it ultimately might be up to the courts to decide.<\/p>\n<p>Before the shutdown went into effect, a group of labor unions <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/live\/donald-trump-news-updates-9-30-2025#00000199-9c25-d394-abb9-bf2ff8a90000\">filed a lawsuit<\/a><\/span>  claiming that the Trump administration violated the law by threatening to perform a mass firing of federal workers during a shutdown.<\/p>\n<p>The Office of Management and Budget <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/donald-trump-congress-government-shutdown-99d4cafe53209f6dc6ae5562c2ac79d2\">said late last month<\/a><\/span>  that agencies should consider layoffs for shutdown programs whose funding is not otherwise funded and is &ldquo;not consistent with the President&rsquo;s priorities,&rdquo; and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said this week that layoffs were &ldquo;imminent.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>There are federal statutes that lay out how reductions in force &ndash; or &ldquo;RIFs&rdquo; &ndash; are supposed to be carried out, including giving employees a 60-day notice, and some Democrats including newly elected Rep. James Walkinshaw of Virginia have <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/walkinshaw.house.gov\/media\/press-releases\/icymi-op-ed-by-rep-james-walkinshaw-russ-vought-s-directive-to-fire-federal-workers-during-a-shutdown-is-illegal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">called any plans for mass firings<\/a><\/span>  an &ldquo;illegal power grab.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Do you have a <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/live\/donald-trump-news-updates-10-3-2025?tab=00000199-a9ce-d8db-a1db-f9cf649d0001\">question for AP<\/a><\/span>  about the government shutdown? You can <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/modules.wearehearken.com\/associated-press\/embed\/12545\/share\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">submit it here<\/a><\/span>. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/legal-fire-furloughed-federal-workers-shutdown-8084b45b47318e330cac81f189c4e1a2\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] Here&rsquo;s a question about the shutdown submitted by an Associated Press reader, G: Is it legal to fire furloughed federal workers during a shutdown? This question has prompted a fierce conversation, and it ultimately might be up to the courts to decide. Before the shutdown went into effect, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}