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The largest federal workers union on Thursday denounced the White House’s threat of mass firings in the event of a government shutdown next week as “political games” and an attempt to distract from a simple fact: The Republican Party needs Democrats to vote for its funding bill, so it must agree to reverse massive healthcare cuts in order to get Democratic support.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a memo Wednesday night, telling federal agencies to prepare for mass layoffs if the government shuts down on October 1.

The office, headed by Russell Vought—who co-authored the right-wing agenda Project 2025 and helped push for the firing of tens of thousands of other federal employees by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—said agencies should consider firing workers involved in programs that are not funded by other laws such as the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and that are “not consistent with the president’s priorities.”

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Even after government funding is eventually reinstated following a potential........

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