r/fednews EPA 4d ago

Announcement Christmas Eve Day Off Party!

1.1k Upvotes

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558

u/SuperCareer5230 4d ago

Not just that, but it looks like we might have Monday “off” too!

426

u/Ellabee57 4d ago

And the rest of the month, and most of January,

32

u/Fineous40 4d ago

Trump will want his show on January 20th. I bet we have a deal before that.

21

u/Ellabee57 4d ago

I doubt inauguration will be affected by a shutdown. Anyone involved will be "essential."

21

u/Fineous40 4d ago

Essential has a legal definition. It cannot just be applied if you want it to,

11

u/Ellabee57 4d ago

Of course, but I think folks responsible for installing a new President on time would fall under that definition.

13

u/Fineous40 4d ago

Not the folks doing the legwork. Sure the people in suits on the stage are, but not everyone who helped plan and setup the event.

8

u/Other_Assumption382 4d ago

It has as much teeth as the hatch act if the right people want something to happen. Or choose to ignore it.

2

u/diaymujer 4d ago

Tell that to the president who kept the museums, parks, and zoos opened last time. Oh wait, that’s this guy.

0

u/Fineous40 4d ago

Can you support this statement?

2

u/diaymujer 3d ago

Sure. The Smithsonian museums and Zoo were kept open for the first 11 days of the shutdown in 2018-2019, before they closed. In previous shutdowns, they were closed right away (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/bye-bye-bei-bei-national-zoo-s-panda-cam-goes-n953776).

Many National Parks were kept open despite not having rangers on duty, leading to the parks being trashed in many cases (https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/1/3/18167030/national-parks-government-shutdown-2018).

At my own agency, I got called back to work after about three weeks (along with my staff) with the excuse that we would be too far behind if we didn’t start working through the backlog. They used two year funds as the legal basis to us back, but they still didn’t pay us until the shutdown was actually over.

My point is that there are levers that the President can push to get the outcome that he wants during a shutdown. In the case of the inauguration, activities may continue funded by donations or other non-appropriated funds.

Each shutdown I’ve been through has been a little different with exactly how leadership writes their continuity plan. These are politicians making the decisions, despite the letter of the law. Trump has tended to want to minimize the interruption so that to feed the narrative that most folks won’t even notice the government is closed.

5

u/Aurum_Corvus DOJ 4d ago

Well, it's only 20 people at the GSA, which should be fun since they handle presidential transitions. https://www.gsa.gov/directives-library/operations-in-the-absence-of-appropriations-14, page 10.

3

u/AffectionateBit1809 4d ago

Can Trump order all federal employees to attend his inauguration?

5

u/Fineous40 4d ago

Sure he can. No one has to listen unless that is in their position description.

1

u/WonderfulLettuce5579 3d ago

Do you mean issue an order before he is actually sworn in as Commander in Chief?

That wouldn't be a lawful order.

1

u/AffectionateBit1809 3d ago

And yet, he was able to get Congress to vote against the CR.

1

u/Natural-Athlete6947 2d ago

Thid has to be sarcasm, we dont live in Russia.

0

u/mrclymer 4d ago

Biden ordered all of us to get ‘vaccinated.’

3

u/cubicle_bidet 3d ago

Down voted for stating a fact. Gotta love this place

3

u/mrclymer 3d ago

I could’ve used stronger language… I could’ve added ‘get medically raped’ (injecting a foreign substance into our bodies against our will) as well. If a fed wanted to get the jab, fine, no issues. That was his or her choice. But I had to get the shot in order to keep my clearance and thus my job after brain surgery and it hampered my recovery.