Today’s notice: Making sense of the OMB memos. Another October surprise in Virginia? The politics of Trump’s domestic deployments. And: How James Comey missed out on one of the many pardons at the end of Biden’s term.
THE LATEST
Another leaked memo, another scramble: Everyone set their faces to confused on Tuesday in the hours after guidance from the Office of Management and Budget saying federal workers may not be made whole after missing paychecks during the government shutdown was leaked.
“I would say it depends on who we’re talking about,” President Donald Trump told reporters at a press conference, further clouding the issue — which is really about how to interpret a law that Trump signed in 2019 guaranteeing back pay for federal workers following a shutdown. “It really depends on who you’re talking about. But for the most part, we’re going to take care of our people. There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.”
Republicans were not rushing to back the idea that federal workers could be out of luck, our Hill team reports.
Does this matter? This is the second headline-grabbing OMB memo of the shutdown. The first was about RIFs, which OMB warned would wash over the federal workforce if no spending bill was passed. (It’s worth noting that the White House claims it can fire government workers en masse whenever it wants, regardless of whether there’s a shutdown or not.) Those promised RIFs have not come to fruition yet, and Trump says the RIFs may not happen for another four or five days, a clear cooling on the strategy.
Unions have Democrats’ backs — for now: AFGE, the union representing thousands of federal workers, responded to the back pay memo with frustration at Trump, not pressure on Democrats to end the shutdown. “The frivolous argument that federal employees are not guaranteed backpay under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act is an obvious misinterpretation of the law,” union president Everett Kelley said in a statement Tuesday. “It is also inconsistent with the Trump administration’s own guidance from mere days ago.”
Open tabs: Senate Confirms ‘Sharpiegate’ Meteorologist to Lead NOAA (NYT); Dems Embrace MTG’s Change of Heart on Health Care (NOTUS); Trump considers sale of federal student loan debt (Politico); Flight delays begin as government shutdown hits air travel (CNN)
From the shutdown
Red states feel Trump’s “Maximum Pain” strategy, too. At least 15 grant cancellations worth more than $1 billion listed by the Department of Energy in blue states were actually set to go toward projects like grid upgrades, carbon capture facilities and hydrogen hub components in states that Trump won, NOTUS’ Shifra Dayak and Manuela Silva report.
“The grid is a highly interconnected system, and programs that support energy abundance and reliability in one state have direct spillover effects in neighboring states,” Zealan Hoover, an adviser to the EPA under Joe Biden, said.
From the campaign trail
Trump changes the subject in Virginia? Democrats have been in a defensive crouch for days after violent text messages from their nominee for Virginia attorney general, Jay Jones, took over the conversation up and down the ballot. Then came the OMB memo about federal-employee pay in the shutdown — an esoteric issue just about everywhere else, but not in Virginia where a good chunk of the federal workforce lives.
Democrats took up the pay issue, fast. Their nominee for Virginia governor, Abigail Spanberger, went hard Tuesday at the OMB memo.
Polls show the race is an uphill climb for the Republicans, with Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears struggling to message on White House cuts to the federal workforce. Loss of pay is not going to help, Democrats say. “Virginians already blame Donald Trump for shutting down the government, and now Sears can blame him for shutting down her campaign, too,” a national Democratic strategist told NOTUS.
OMB’s timing is certainly not helping. Earle-Sears just came out with an ad about Jones’ texts and is trying to build momentum on it; national Republicans reportedly put new money into the race, too. Earle-Sears is set to debate Spanberger tomorrow, but Democrats now have the memo to talk about instead of the texts. Earle-Sears’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
As for Jones, his campaign canceled a Thursday fundraiser and appears to be on the ropes.
From the Hill
Some House Democrats will be staying around the Capitol. The caucus continues to slam Republicans for leaving town during the shutdown, but as we enter the second week, it appears Democrats are on a voluntary return. But Democrats are set to have a significant presence on the Hill — and that is still the core of their shutdown messaging.
A House Democratic aide tells NOTUS’ Oriana González there will be a traditional media row in the Capitol for Democrats to talk to, plus spaces for creators and digital voices. A shadow hearing about health care is also scheduled for tomorrow.
“With more than 75 House Democrats on Capitol Hill tomorrow during the Republicans’ third week of vacation, we intend to use the opportunity to demand that Mike Johnson return his conference to Congress,” the aide told Oriana.
THE BIG ONE
Comey’s day in court: Former FBI Director James Comey is expected to present himself in a federal court in Virginia today, becoming Trump’s first perceived enemy dragged in front of the bench on the president’s retribution tour.
Trump has said it’s likely more people face charges. But Comey lacks something a number of longtime Trump antagonists possess: a preemptive pardon from former President Biden.
Comey was never under serious consideration for a pardon from the former administration, Jasmine reports, according to three people familiar with the Biden pardon process. His name did initially come up among a group of high-ranking White House aides after it was floated by an outside advocacy group, two of those sources said.
Conversations hinged around “political liability” affected Comey, one source said, with senior advisers wary of setting “a precedent by assuming who Trump would have political retribution against.”
NEW ON NOTUS
Republicans question blue-city deployments: Republican senators told NOTUS that they support Trump’s decision to send National Guard troops into cities like Chicago and Portland — with one caveat. “If it becomes non-temporary, that’s a different matter entirely,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis told NOTUS’ Haley Byrd Wilt.
But at what point would she start to feel uncomfortable? “That’s a great question. I don’t know,” Lummis responded.
Victory for the NRCC: The House GOP’s political arm last week successfully pressured a liberal group to modify political ads targeting three battleground Republican incumbents, arguing that language in the TV spots was inaccurate. NOTUS’ Alex Roarty reports that Republicans believe the win is evidence they’ll be able to deflect some attacks by Democrats in next year’s midterms.
More: Senators Grill Pam Bondi Over FBI’s Alleged $50,000 Tom Homan Bribe, by Jose Pagliery
SCOTUS Questions Medical Consensus That Conversion Therapy Is Harmful, by Oriana González
NOT US
- ICE kept most offices open in shutdown — but not the one inspecting detention centers, by Douglas MacMillan for The Washington Post
- America’s Soybean Farmers Are Panicking Over the Loss of Chinese Buyers, by Patrick Thomas for The Wall Street Journal
- How politicians and passengers gave up on greener air travel, by Kenza Bryan, Peter Campbell and Attracta Mooney for the Financial Times
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