By FATIMA HUSSEIN, JOEY CAPPELLETTI, JESSE BEDAYN and SAFIYAH RIDDLE Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — With every passing day of the government shutdown, hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed or working without pay face mounting financial strain. And now they are confronting new uncertainty with the Trump administration’s promised layoffs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House budget office said Friday that mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said on the social media site X that the “RIFs have begun,” referring to reduction-in-force plans aimed at reducing the size of the federal government.
A Fort Belvoir woman’s interaction with Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson regarding pay for members of the U.S. military went viral today (Thursday).
With the federal government shutdown now in its ninth day, the woman, identified as Samantha from Fort Belvoir, called into C-SPAN’s Washington Journal to express her frustration over the possibility of members of the armed services missing paychecks.
Without action, millions of Americans — including thousands across Fairfax County — will soon experience drastic changes to their healthcare coverage.
Federal health insurance subsidies are set to expire at year’s end, triggering increases to monthly premiums estimated at hundreds of dollars. Rep. James Walkinshaw and other House Democrats are in agreement that seeking a permanent solution is a hill worth dying on.
Like everyone else, Fairfax County leaders remain in wait-and-see mode to determine the short-term and potential long-term implications of the federal government’s ongoing shutdown.
“It really depends on the length,” said Jennifer Imo, managing partner of client services for Ferguson Group, a lobbying organization hired by Fairfax County to represent its interests on Capitol Hill.
By STEPHEN GROVES, MARY CLARE JALONICK and MATT BROWN Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hopes for a quick end to the government shutdown faded Friday as Democrats refused to budge in a Senate vote and President Donald Trump readied plans to unleash layoffs and cuts across the federal government.
The White House is reportedly seeking to move forward with a planned relocation of the Discovery space shuttle from its longtime home in Chantilly to Texas.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has requested that the Smithsonian Institution work with NASA on preparing to transfer the orbiter from the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center to the Space Center Houston Museum in Texas, according to a letter sent to members of Congress earlier this week.
Conditions at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Chantilly have improved in recent weeks, four of Northern Virginia’s federal legislators say.
Sen. Mark Warner, as well as Reps. James Walkinshaw, Suhas Subramanyam and Don Beyer, visited the facility last Friday (Sept. 26) “after a month of attempting to gain access.”
The federal government could shut down this week, barring a last-minute compromise between Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders on a new budget.
While Democrats have singled out extending health care benefits as their top priority in the ongoing negotiations, Virginia’s senators are also looking to secure the Space Shuttle Discovery’s future at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly.
By ERIC TUCKER, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — James Comey was charged Thursday with lying to Congress in a criminal case filed days after President Donald Trump appeared to urge his attorney general to prosecute the former FBI director and other perceived political enemies.
