…The threat of Mei’s dismissal has sparked concerns & outrage among other USDA workers & members of the Federal Unionists Network, who argue that the move is part of a concerted effort by the #Trump admin to chill #speech among federal employees.
At the time Mei spoke to MSNBC, the information she shared was publicly available through a variety of news articles & guidance from anti-hunger advocates, think tanks & organizations.
#USDA itself, in a memo dated Sept30, explained that #SNAP funding would lapse because of the #shutdown & that the #OMB would use contingency reserves to pay for benefits past Oct. That memo, however, was scrubbed from the agency’s website later in Oct, once the #Trump admin began arguing against tapping contingency funds to pay for benefits.
In the MSNBC interview, host Chris Jansing also explained that Mei was speaking as herself & a #union leader, not a USDA employee.
#law #labor #FreeSpeech
The #shutdown is the first since Jan 2019, & the 4th of #Trump’s 2 terms. Admin ofcls this time, though, have signaled plans to use the closed agencies as a way to vastly reshape the #FederalGovernment & consolidate #power under the presidency.
#OMB dir #RussVought ordered agencies to consider #MassFirings rather than #furloughs. His instructions to agencies include guidance on rewriting #regulations surrounding federal #grants & challenging #Congress’s constitutional #power over spending.
#law
The #Trump admin has taken an aggressive approach to cutting back the federal government’s role in #education, including plans to eliminate the Education Department entirely. Though only #Congress can abolish the department, the Trump admin has taken an ax to education staffing & #funding more broadly as it seeks to whittle down the department.
The admin has suggested that it may seek to eliminate the nearly $7 billion in frozen funding. [which it absolutely cannot do]
#RussVought, the director of the White House #OMB, said during a #Senate#Appropriations Cmte hearing last week that the admin was considering ways to claw back the funding through a process known as rescission. The admin would formally ask lawmakers to claw back a set of funds it has targeted for cuts. Even if #Congress fails to vote on the request, #Trump’s timing would trigger a #law that freezes the money until it ultimately expires.
“No decision has been made,” Vought said.
Update. Reminder from #Trump's first term (2017): Trump’s budget director pick: “Do we really need government-funded research at all”
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/12/21/14012552/trump-budget-director-research-science-mulvaney
"President Donald #Trump recently picked Rep. Mick #Mulvaney…to head the White House’s Office of Management and Budget [#OMB]…In a stunning September 9 Facebook post (that’s since been deleted but is still cached), Mulvaney asked, '... what might be the best question: do we really need government funded research at all.'"
Update. #OMB is telling #DOGE to stop using #Slack. Why? Because Slack messages are subject to #FOI requests.
https://www.404media.co/doge-employees-ordered-to-stop-using-slack-while-agency-transitions-to-a-records-system-not-subject-to-foia/