Federal Practice Group Founding Partner Debra D’Agostino was recently quoted in The Washington Post article, “Senior government officials privately warn against firings during shutdown,” discussing the legal and practical concerns surrounding potential reductions in force during a government shutdown. She shared her perspective below:
“Federal employment lawyers said the dismissals would almost certainly be illegal, violating rules that guide the process of federal layoffs. Regulations governing reductions in force say that agencies can dismiss employees for one of several reasons, including a lack of work, a reorganization or a shortage of funds.
But that has never been interpreted to refer to a temporary lapse of funding because of Congress not getting its act together and causing some sort of shutdown,” said Debra D’Agostino, founding partner of a law firm devoted to representing federal employees.
The federal government remained shut down Thursday amid an ongoing, bitter partisan battle over funding laws. Senate Democrats say they will not vote to reopen the government unless Republicans agree to extend health care subsidies slated to expire this year, but Republicans say they will not negotiate on policy issues until the government is funded again.
Regulations say that employees must be given 60 days of advance notice before being laid off. What if the shutdown ends up lasting for 12 days, D’Agostino asked, “Or 12 hours? Three hours? I just can’t see how they tomorrow spit out notices saying you’re fired because of no funding, and then on Friday, we have funding again.”