Trump pushes limits on unpaid workers

Bloomberg

The Trump administration has ordered thousands of furloughed federal employees back to work without pay to inspect planes, issue tax refunds, monitor food safety and facilitate the sale of offshore oil drilling rights.
The efforts in recent days illustrate how President Donald Trump is trying to limit the impact of the partial government shutdown and shield favoured industries as the funding impasse thwarts the deployment of new aircraft and stock offerings. The Obama administration took the opposite approach in 2013 by erecting barricades around open-air monuments and largely closing national parks — then leveraging public anger to blame Republicans for halted government services.
Critics say the Trump administration is skirting federal law by continuing some functions amid the political stalemate between congressional Democrats and Trump over whether to fund a wall on the US-Mexico border.
A 149-year-old law bars agencies from spending money Congress hasn’t given to them, with only limited exceptions for “emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property.”
“This administration is being creative in its ability to break the law and test the boundaries,” said Sam Berger, a senior adviser at the Center for American Progress who worked at the Office of Management and Budget under former President Barack Obama.
“They are really walking up to and past that line,” Berger said. “It’s clear they are making political calls, and they aren’t letting decisions be dictated by sound management, by the law or by really anything other than the next 10 minutes of news coverage and how they can win the day.”
The responsibility for prosecuting violations of the 1870 Antideficiency Act falls to the Justice Department — and no one’s ever been hauled to court to account for flouting the law. It’s not clear if anyone else would have standing to challenge agency spending and activities that continue amid a shutdown.
Paychecks for some 800,000 government employees have been halted amid the lapse in federal funding, including about 420,000 who have been forced to work anyway.
The Trump administration is calling back some 46,000 furloughed employees, according to an updated contingency plan.