Will the U.S. government shut down again? The White House Office of Management and Budget is asking federal agencies to develop large-scale layoff plans in the event of a government shutdown, directing them to target projects that are not legally required to continue. This instruction, outlined in a memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to agencies obtained by CNN, differs significantly from previous government practices in dealing with shutdowns and represents an escalation by the Trump administration amid a stalemate with Democratic lawmakers over federal funding.

In the memo, the Office of Management and Budget instructed agencies to identify projects that would face funding interruptions if Congress failed to act before the September 30 funding deadline and had no other sources of funding. These projects should then be targets for large-scale layoffs, potentially permanently eliminating positions deemed "inconsistent with President Donald Trump's priorities."

The Office of Management and Budget wrote in the memo: "We still hope that Democratic lawmakers in Congress will not trigger a shutdown, and the above steps will not need to be implemented."

A spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget declined to comment. Politico was the first to report the details of the memo.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the memo "an attempt at intimidation."

Schumer said in a statement on Wednesday evening: "Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one — not to govern, but to create fear. This is nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government. These unnecessary firings will either be overturned in court or the government will eventually rehire these employees, as they recently did today."

The threat of large-scale unemployment within the government may further intensify the partisan funding deadlock in the coming week. Democrats are demanding a series of concessions in exchange for keeping the government running through November. Most notably, Democrats have insisted on extending the federal subsidy enhancements for the Affordable Care Act, which will expire at the end of the year.

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