Law be damned, Trump asserts unilateral control over executive branch, federal service (9 Viewers)

[superchuck500]

Following the Project 2025 playbook, in the last week, Trump and his newly installed loyalists have moved to (1) dismiss federal officials deemed unreliable to do his bidding (including 17 inspectors general) - many of which have protections from arbitrary dismissal, (2) freeze all science and public health activity until he can wrest full control, (3) freeze all federal assistance and grant activity deemed inconsistent with Trump's agenda, and (4) moved to terminate all federal employee telework and DEI programs.

The problem is much of this is controlled by federal law and not subject to sudden and complete change by the president through executive order. Most notably is the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 that simply codifies what is the constitutional allocation of resources where Congress appropriates money to the executive branch for a specific purpose, the executive branch must carry out that statutory purpose. This is indeed a constitutional crisis and even if Congress abdicates to Trump by acquiescing, the courts must still apply the law - or rule it unconstitutional.

And meanwhile the architect of much of this unlawful action is Russell Vought, Trump’s OMB nominee who the Senate appears ready to confirm.

120. The Impoundment Crisis of 2025

The Trump administration's Monday spending freeze is likely to provoke a crisis over the constitutionality of "impoundment"—one that the justices could well have to resolve *very* soon.

www.stevevladeck.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Wasn’t sure where to put this

One F bomb

 

[Optimus Prime]

An employee of the Department of Health and Human Services got her instructions Wednesday in an email. The subject line was “Return to In-Person Work Guidance for March 17, 2025.”

The employee, who lives in the Southwest and has been working remotely since she started her job in 2023, scrolled through the email. It listed her name, followed by her return date. It designated her assigned floor and workspace.

And it included the address of the building she was to report to. It was in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

She had five days to relocate across the country.

All around the United States, federal workers are being informed that they must report to the office to comply with President Donald Trump’s January directive for all government employees to work on-site full-time. Many remote workers are being told they need to come to offices hundreds or even thousand of miles away — sometimes with just a few days’ notice.

On Thursday afternoon, nonmanagement employees of the Social Security Administration received an email instructing them to begin full-time in-person work on Monday — less than four days away.

The email set off a mad scramble for one employee, a military veteran with nearly 20 years of federal service who, like other federal workers in this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Minutes after opening the directive, the employee and his wife began frantically trying to line up child care during their kids’ spring break next week, canceling plans and begging friends to help. Meanwhile, the employee began gaming out his new commute, which he expects will take an hour and 45 minutes each way.

His supervisor had tipped him off earlier this week that a return-to-office mandate would be coming soon. But he didn’t expect to be told late Thursday that he had to be back in the office by Monday.

“Their goal is to terrorize federal workers, and they’re succeeding,” the employee said, adding, “We’re surrounded by uncertainty, and when we do get direction it is last-minute.”

As of 2023, 7 to 10 percent of federal employees worked fully remotely, according to the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, while 43 percent teleworked. Now most of those people are being ordered back into the office full-time, with the threat of termination if they don’t comply. “If people don’t come back to work, come back into the office, they’re going to be dismissed,” Trump said in January.

The administration’s hurried return-to-office push has been causing chaos for weeks. Many workers have been sent back to buildings that don’t have space for them all, forcing them to work in conference rooms or closets, kill time in the hallways until a desk opens up, or even flip a coin to see if they can land a workspace. Some have reported for work, only to learn a day later that the administration had just canceled the lease for their office buildings. And some have attempted to use the administration’s online tools to match them to a nearby office and received suggestions such as a self-storage facility and a shuttered sandwich shop.

Some remote workers expected to be offered access to these matching systems — flawed though they may be — to give them a chance to work from a federal building near their homes. Instead, they’ve found themselves required to report to faraway offices, with seemingly no one around to answer their questions.

A Defense Department employee, also based in the Southwest, learned last month that she had until April 30 to start reporting to an office in another state, a 12-hour drive from her home. The employee, who was hired as a remote worker in 2021, said she is scrambling to sell her house and make the move. But she’s so worried that she’ll get fired even after returning to the office, due to the administration’s ongoing cuts to the federal workforce, that she’s hedging her bets, bringing just one suitcase with her and staying with a colleague. For now, her other possessions will go in storage.

She acknowledged that it’s easier for her to make a last-minute move than for many of her colleagues, since she doesn’t have a family to relocate.

“It’s just me,” she said. “My boyfriend died earlier this year, unfortunately. I’m still grieving that. I do not need to be uprooting my life right now. But it’s just me and my dog, so I have it a lot easier than a lot of my colleagues.”

An employee of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services was informed in February that he had until April 28 to report either to the agency’s Baltimore headquarters — more than 1,000 miles away — or to the nearest regional office, a 7.5-hour drive from his home.

The employee became fully remote at the start of the pandemic, and he made a long-distance move with his family in 2023, with all the required approvals. His 92-year-old mother lives with them and depends on them entirely.

His said his agency provided an email address to resolve issues: ImportantHRquestion@cms.hhs.gov. He emailed about his options and got no response.

“I’ve heard nothing,” he said. “Nobody has communicated. Nobody in my chain of command knows anything.”...............

Federal workers told to report to faraway offices—with days’ notice​

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/03/14/federal-return-to-office-remote-workers/

 

[Lapaz]

Wasn’t sure where to put this

One F bomb

I detest this type of blame. I think it's racist. She blames white people for Trump, when it was people of all races that are to blame. Trump had a net gain of 4 to 5% among whites, but 35 % of black men, and 35% of hispanic men. Black and white women stayed practically the same, but hispanic women also went for Trump by 19% more than they did when in 2020. The only gains made by Harris were in all races age 55 and over, with blacks by 6%, and hispanics by 15%, and whites by 2%. So Harris gained the wiser people, but to blame whites is racist. Trump has been inflicted on the world by stupidity, not by whites.

2024 Post-Election Survey: Racial Analysis of 2024 Election Results

Polling report on how racial groups voted in the 2024 election, including what issues mattered most and how vote shares compared to the 2020 election.

navigatorresearch.org

 

[Optimus Prime]

I detest this type of blame. I think it's racist. She blames white people for Trump, when it was people of all races that are to blame. Trump had a net gain of 4 to 5% among whites, but 35 % of black men, and 35% of hispanic men. Black and white women stayed practically the same, but hispanic women also went for Trump by 19% more than they did when in 2020. The only gains made by Harris were in all races age 55 and over, with blacks by 6%, and hispanics by 15%, and whites by 2%. So Harris gained the wiser people, but to blame whites is racist. Trump has been inflicted on the world by stupidity, not by whites.

2024 Post-Election Survey: Racial Analysis of 2024 Election Results

Polling report on how racial groups voted in the 2024 election, including what issues mattered most and how vote shares compared to the 2020 election.

navigatorresearch.org

I get that there is a whole lot of blame to go around but I think her point is people asking "where's Kamala?" Why won't Harris say something?" "why won't she do something?" by people who didn’t vote for her

"I'm with Kamala!", "I support Kamala!" "I'm voting for Harris!" then when they got in that booth checked off Trump

It was the reverse of those ads telling white women that you can tell your husband you're voting for Trump, then vote for Kamala, he'll never know

There was definitely a racial/gender component to that and no one will convince me otherwise

That's why after the election there were so many videos from black people (black women in particular) saying I'm out. There was a real feeling of betrayal

We'll see if the Blackout in the midterms and 28 happens

So there is a sense of "I didn't want the black woman to do the job, but I want her to help clean up this mess"

I don't blame her one bit for basically saying "get out of my face with that"

 

[Lapaz]

I get that there is a whole lot of blame to go around but I think her point is people asking "where's Kamala?" Why won't Harris say something?" "why won't she do something?" by people who didn’t vote for her

"I'm with Kamala!", "I support Kamala!" "I'm voting for Harris!" then when they got in that booth checked off Trump

It was the reverse of those ads telling white women that you can tell your husband you're voting for Trump, then vote for Kamala, he'll never know

There was definitely a racial/gender component to that and no one will convince me otherwise

That's why after the election there were so many videos from black people (black women in particular) saying I'm out. There was a real feeling of betrayal

We'll see if the Blackout in the midterms and 28 happens

So there is a sense of "I didn't want the black woman to do the job, but I want her to help clean up this mess"

I don't blame her one bit for basically saying "get out of my face with that"

I get that it isn’t Harris’ fault, and some racists blame her, and some didn’t vote for her because she is black, but it doesn’t help to then be equally racist. Harris will play a role in the Democratic Party in the future, so I’m cool with just saying to leave her alone. No need to make it racial by saying white people need to leave her alone. Race blaming turns off more people than it wins over.

 

[MT15]

An employee of the Department of Health and Human Services got her instructions Wednesday in an email. The subject line was “Return to In-Person Work Guidance for March 17, 2025.”

The employee, who lives in the Southwest and has been working remotely since she started her job in 2023, scrolled through the email. It listed her name, followed by her return date. It designated her assigned floor and workspace.

And it included the address of the building she was to report to. It was in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

She had five days to relocate across the country.

All around the United States, federal workers are being informed that they must report to the office to comply with President Donald Trump’s January directive for all government employees to work on-site full-time. Many remote workers are being told they need to come to offices hundreds or even thousand of miles away — sometimes with just a few days’ notice.

On Thursday afternoon, nonmanagement employees of the Social Security Administration received an email instructing them to begin full-time in-person work on Monday — less than four days away.

The email set off a mad scramble for one employee, a military veteran with nearly 20 years of federal service who, like other federal workers in this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Minutes after opening the directive, the employee and his wife began frantically trying to line up child care during their kids’ spring break next week, canceling plans and begging friends to help. Meanwhile, the employee began gaming out his new commute, which he expects will take an hour and 45 minutes each way.

His supervisor had tipped him off earlier this week that a return-to-office mandate would be coming soon. But he didn’t expect to be told late Thursday that he had to be back in the office by Monday.

“Their goal is to terrorize federal workers, and they’re succeeding,” the employee said, adding, “We’re surrounded by uncertainty, and when we do get direction it is last-minute.”

As of 2023, 7 to 10 percent of federal employees worked fully remotely, according to the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, while 43 percent teleworked. Now most of those people are being ordered back into the office full-time, with the threat of termination if they don’t comply. “If people don’t come back to work, come back into the office, they’re going to be dismissed,” Trump said in January.

The administration’s hurried return-to-office push has been causing chaos for weeks. Many workers have been sent back to buildings that don’t have space for them all, forcing them to work in conference rooms or closets, kill time in the hallways until a desk opens up, or even flip a coin to see if they can land a workspace. Some have reported for work, only to learn a day later that the administration had just canceled the lease for their office buildings. And some have attempted to use the administration’s online tools to match them to a nearby office and received suggestions such as a self-storage facility and a shuttered sandwich shop.

Some remote workers expected to be offered access to these matching systems — flawed though they may be — to give them a chance to work from a federal building near their homes. Instead, they’ve found themselves required to report to faraway offices, with seemingly no one around to answer their questions.

A Defense Department employee, also based in the Southwest, learned last month that she had until April 30 to start reporting to an office in another state, a 12-hour drive from her home. The employee, who was hired as a remote worker in 2021, said she is scrambling to sell her house and make the move. But she’s so worried that she’ll get fired even after returning to the office, due to the administration’s ongoing cuts to the federal workforce, that she’s hedging her bets, bringing just one suitcase with her and staying with a colleague. For now, her other possessions will go in storage.

She acknowledged that it’s easier for her to make a last-minute move than for many of her colleagues, since she doesn’t have a family to relocate.

“It’s just me,” she said. “My boyfriend died earlier this year, unfortunately. I’m still grieving that. I do not need to be uprooting my life right now. But it’s just me and my dog, so I have it a lot easier than a lot of my colleagues.”

An employee of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services was informed in February that he had until April 28 to report either to the agency’s Baltimore headquarters — more than 1,000 miles away — or to the nearest regional office, a 7.5-hour drive from his home.

The employee became fully remote at the start of the pandemic, and he made a long-distance move with his family in 2023, with all the required approvals. His 92-year-old mother lives with them and depends on them entirely.

His said his agency provided an email address to resolve issues: ImportantHRquestion@cms.hhs.gov. He emailed about his options and got no response.

“I’ve heard nothing,” he said. “Nobody has communicated. Nobody in my chain of command knows anything.”...............

Federal workers told to report to faraway offices—with days’ notice​

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/03/14/federal-return-to-office-remote-workers/

Nobody with even a tiny bit of ethics, morals, or just plain old common decency treats people this way.

 

[DaveXA]

Nobody with even a tiny bit of ethics, morals, or just plain old common decency treats people this way.

They simply don't care about decency or ethics or morals. They only care about 2 things, power and control. Those are the drivers for everything they do. If they have to hurt people to get it, they'll do it without a second thought.

 

[superchuck500]

 

[DaveXA]

The modern day Gestapo.

 

[MT15]

Once again - will there be any consequences? And I would love to see our “conservatives” defend this action like they are defending everything else these lawless thugs do.

 

[Lapaz]

Once again - will there be any consequences? And I would love to see our “conservatives” defend this action like they are defending everything else these lawless thugs do.

They may be subject to civil lawsuits that Trump can’t pardon.

 

[MT15]

They may be subject to civil lawsuits that Trump can’t pardon.

Breaking and entering a building isn’t a civil matter, or it shouldn’t be, anyway.

 

[MT15]

So the admin has placed the fired probationary employees who it was court-ordered to reinstate on Administrative leave and is paying them back pay. So we haven’t saved a dime, and actually cost the taxpayers money by doing the firings in an illegal (and shirtty) manner. The judge says that putting them on Administrative leave violated his order.