Unions call on senators to ‘defund’ Trump’s workforce purges

A coalition of more than a dozen federal employee unions on Tuesday urged Senate lawmakers to reassert Congress’ constitutional power of the purse and block the Trump administration’s unilateral workforce and programmatic cuts when they seek to keep the government open next month.

As of Thursday, Congress had just over two weeks to reach an agreement to fund federal agencies and avert a government shutdown on March 15. With razor-thin margins in both the House and Senate, any deal likely will require Democratic votes to pass. And in a social media post Thursday night, President Trump called on lawmakers to pass a “clean” full-year continuing resolution that would keep agencies operating until September.

But the Federal Workers Alliance, a coalition of 15 federal worker unions including the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers and the National Federation of Federal Employees, in a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Vice Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., called on senators to reassert Congress’ power of the purse and block the administration’s efforts to fire workers en masse and cancel contracts and grants unilaterally.

“The unions of the Federal Workers Alliance are urging you, as the chair and vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to step in and exercise Congress’ power of the purse by defunding the implementation of many of the illegal acts being promulgated by the Trump administration,” the group wrote. “While many of our unions are suing and seeking relief in federal court, Congress must reassert itself as a co-equal branch of the federal government.”

The groups call for language guaranteeing a “permanent halt and reversal” of the administration’s funding freezes, contract cancellations and efforts to shutter agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development, which experts say likely violate the Impoundment Control Act and statutes establishing those agencies. And Congress should issue a two-year moratorium on changes to the federal workforce and agency operations, the unions argued.

“A two-year moratorium should be implemented, halting any reductions in force, personnel changes, agency modifications or any other actions not initiated by employees or properly authorized and appropriated,” they wrote. “We request that this pause be put in place through your appropriations measure to also include funding for a comprehensive study to assess the potential impact of future actions on the executive branch’s operations and their effects on the lawful mandates and requirements set by Congress.”

The unions also urged the lawmakers to consider clarifying congressional intent regarding two issues that were considered during Trump’s first term but ultimately never implemented.

First is the potential for the president to use authority granted in the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act to exempt “national security” positions from federal collective bargaining rights. The unions requested language clarifying that such work only refers to roles involved with intelligence, counterintelligence and investigations.

The unions also requested language to use the Holman Rule to negate the salaries of “any political appointee or principal officer” if any agency ceases offering voluntary automatic union dues deduction from employees’ paychecks. During Trump’s first term, the Federal Labor Relations Authority briefly chipped away at dues deductions, and conservative groups had urged the body to end the practice altogether.

“We fully understand hat some of the above requests may not be ideally suited to be added to a funding measure,” the group wrote. “However, given the speed by which the administration is moving its illegal actions and the impact it is having on our nation’s federal employees, our military readiness, the services that taxpayers so desperately depend on, and our very democracy itself, Congress must take extraordinary steps now to rein in this rogue administration.”