WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is making this government shutdown unlike anything the country has ever seen, giving his budget office a rare authority to pick winners and losers — who will be paid or fired — in an unprecedented restructuring of the federal workforce.
As the shutdown enters its third week, the Office of Management and Budget said Tuesday it is preparing to “batten down the hatches” with more cuts on the way. The president calls budget chief Russ Vought the “Grim Reaper” who has seized the opportunity to fund Trump's priorities, paying for the military while cutting workers in health care, education, the sciences and other fields in actions that have been criticized as illegal and face legal challenges.
“Pay the troops, pay law enforcement, continue the RIFs and wait,” OMB said in a social media post.
With Congress at a standstill — the Republican-led House refusing to return to session and the Senate mired in a series of failed votes to reopen the government as Democrats demand health care funds — the White House budget office is quickly filling the void.
From Project 2025 to the White House
Vought, chief architect of the conservative policy book Project 2025, is reshaping the size and scope of the federal government in ways similar to those envisioned in the blueprint. It's exactly what some lawmakers, especially Democrats, feared if Congress failed to fund the government.
Trump's priorities — supporting the military and pursuing his mass deportation agenda — have remained largely uninterrupted despite the shutdowns. But employees in health care, education, science and other federal departments are being laid off. As many as 750,000 employees are being laid off.
“Donald Trump and Russ Vought and all their cronies are using this moment to terrorize these patriots,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who stood with federal workers outside the White House budget office on Tuesday.
Van Hollen said it is “a big fat lie” when Trump and his budget director say they will have to lay off federal employees because of the shutdown. “It is also illegal and we will see them in court,” Van Hollen said.
The shutdown will last a third week
Now in its 14th day, the federal shutdown is quickly becoming one of the longest government shutdowns. Congress failed to meet the Oct. 1 deadline to pass annual appropriations bills needed to fund the government as Democrats demanded a deal to preserve expiring health care funds that give people subsidies to buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday he has nothing to negotiate with Democrats until they vote to reopen the government.
The Republican speaker welcomed OMB's latest actions to pay some workers and fire others.
“They have every right to move the funds,” Johnson said at a news conference at the Capitol. If Democrats want to challenge the Trump administration in court, Johnson said, “bring it on.”
Typically, federal employees are laid off during a period of funding, traditionally with back pay once government funding is restored. But Vought's budget office announced late last week that force reductions had begun. More than 4,000 employees received layoff notices this weekend.
Military reward, deportations on schedule
At the same time, Trump instructed the military to find money to ensure service members would not miss paychecks this week. The Pentagon said last weekend it could tap $8 billion in unused research and development funds to make payroll.
On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said her agency was relying on Trump's major tax cut bill for funding to ensure that members of the Coast Guard, which falls under the department, also get paid.
“We at DHS have developed an innovative solution to ensure this does not happen,” Noem said in a statement. Thanks to “the One Big Beautiful Bill,” she said, “the brave men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard will not miss a paycheck this week.”
In previous shutdowns, the Office of Management and Budget has monitored agencies' plans during federal funding expirations to ensure which workers are essential and remain on the job. However, Vought has expanded his role even further by speaking openly about his plans to go after the federal workforce.
As agencies began making their closure plans, Vought's OMB encouraged department heads to consider force reductions, an unprecedented move. Budget office general counsel Mark Paoletta suggested in a draft memo that the workforce may not automatically qualify for back payments once the government reopens.
'Grim Reaper' replaces Elon Musk's chainsaw
Trump posted an AI-generated video last week depicting Vought dressed in cloak and dagger, against the backdrop of the classic rock staple “(Don't Fear) The Reaper.”
“Every authoritarian leader has had their Grim Reaper. Russell Vought is Donald Trump's,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer, the senior Democrat from Maryland.
Hoyer compared the budget chief to billionaire Elon Musk who wielded a chainsaw earlier this year as part of the Department of Government Efficiency's workforce cuts. “Vought is just as mindlessly swinging its scythe through the federal government,” he said.
In many ways, the “Big, Beautiful Bill, Act,” as the law is commonly called, gives the White House a massive new allocation of federal funding for its priority projects, separate from the regular appropriations process in Congress.
The package freed up some $175 billion for the Pentagon, including for the Golden Dome missile shield and other priority projects, and another $175 million for Homeland Security, much of it for Trump's mass deportation agenda. It also included additional funding for Vought's work at OMB.
Trump's big bill provides billions
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, certain funds from the “major bill” are available for use during the shutdown.
“The Administration could also decide to use mandatory funding from the Reconciliation Act of 2025 or other sources of mandatory funding to continue the activities funded by these direct appropriations across agencies,” CBO said.
The CBO listed the Department of Defense, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Management and Budget as among those receiving eligible funds under the law.
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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
