Senator Shelley Moore Capito remains frustrated as a federal shutdown stretches into its third day, and she expressed concern that the executive branch could make good on threats to to conduct mass permanent layoffs in the federal workforce as the shutdown continues.
The Senate was set to reconvene and vote on whether to take up two different proposals to reopen the government, but neither was expected to win the bipartisan backing necessary to end the shutdown.
“I always vote to keep the government open because, as we can see it’s painful for people who get services, painful for our troops, it’s painful for anybody who’s relying on a government service like getting a passport or a visa or your Head Start program,” Capito, R-W.Va., said during a briefing early Friday afternoon with West Virginia reporters.
Congress is supposed to allocate funding to 438 government agencies before Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year. The budget process was not completed by then so the Republican majorities in Congress have been focusing on a stopgap continuing resolution to get to Nov. 21.
Democrats insist they cannot support the GOP legislation until Republicans agree to health care policy changes, reversing recent cuts to Medicaid and other health programs. And Democrats want a deal to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies that will otherwise expire on Dec. 31.
Democrats are also looking for greater restrictions on how the Trump administration can spend money, attempting to curtail the administration’s moves to freeze, shift and cancel funding Congress approves.
The Senate’s filibuster rules have a 60-vote hurdle, and the chamber has not been able to reach that mark on its continuing resolution votes.
The director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought has threatened mass layoffs of federal workers as the shutdown continues. Vought issued a memo last week threatening mass firings.
President Donald Trump has made statements interpreted as supporting that position. The president posted a video to Truth Social depicting Russell as the grim reaper who “wields the pen, the funds and the brain.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that layoffs will likely be in the thousands.
Capito, a member of the Senate Republican leadership team, responded to a MetroNews question in Friday’s briefing to say she takes the talk of layoffs seriously.
The senator took note of the cutting that has already occurred through the Department of Government Efficiency.
“So we know that the president, as I do, wants to shrink government, but I want to do it with a scalpel and not a sledgehammer,” Capito said.
“And I think that’s what could happen here. I think Russ Vought and the president basically warned the Democrats that this was a possibility because he is entrusted with making sure that government is moving while we’re here in a government shutdown.”
She concluded, “And so I think that I can’t control what the president does, obviously, or Russ Vought at this point, but I think they’ve been pretty clear that this is something that they might attempt to do and that getting the government open again with a pure and simple seven week continuation is a solution to that issue.”