OMB issues guidance on Reduction in Force layoffs due to partial shutdown

January 16, 2019 By Thomas Lifson

A new statement from the Office of Management and Budget provides cold comfort for federal bureaucrats worried that furloughs during the partial shutdown could become permanent layoffs, as long as Democrats refuse to give in and fund the border barrier.

There will be no immediate layoffs (what the federal government calls reductions in force – or RIFs) if and when the current partial shutdown passes the 30-day mark in four more days. As I explained yesterday in "Trump's shutdown trap?," ," federal law requires RIFs when federal employees are furloughed more than 30 days.

But after the matter was raised and widely discussed, the OMB issued a statement that indicates that it would require an actual reorganization plan that would make furloughed positions permanently identified as unnecessary, in order for the furloughs to be RIFed. Nicole Ogrysko writes in the Federal News Network: ..............There are two kinds of furloughs. "Administrative furloughs" are planned events by an agency "designed to absorb reductions necessitated by downsizing, reduced funding, lack of work or any budget situation other than a lapse in appropriations," according to the Office of Personnel Management..............To Read More...

My Take - Dear Nancy.  Please stick to your plan.  Dear Donald. Please stick to your plan.