Jacob Bogage

It is 8:27 a.m. on a Tuesday. National Guard troops are out raking leaves by the National Cathedral.

Washington, D.C., in 2025.

👀 There’s one agency left that can push back against Trump during the government shutdown.

Trump is about to pick its new leader.

Meet the Government Accountability Office, the only folks left who can take Trump to court over spending issues.

🎁 Learn more, gift link: wapo.st/48P18Rk

Is anything on social media anyone’s top priority?

I totally hear that. It's been a longggg week/month/year/decade

Brad, I really respect the work you do. I don't know why you're choosing to be pedantic about easily verifiable facts. I'm not going to play this game. I wish you and your team well.

Sure, yeah, whatever. Take it however you want. I don't think that's going to help anyone understand what the Trump administration is up to or hold it accountable. But if folks want to intuit random stuff into a sound bite, sure.

I don't really care what people do. But there's better ways to live.

The first $20B would be, you guessed it, the U.S. taxpayer. The second $20B are private financial institutions -- still trying to learn more about this.

Don't take this quote out of context. The question was specifically about it Trump had additional priorities for redoing parts of the White House grounds.

Think whatever you want about what Trump is doing or not doing.

But understand the context of this quote, not just this selective snippet.

When will federal workers get paid? Ask us your shutdown questions. Our reporters covering the shutdown will answer your questions during a live chat on Thursday at 11 a.m. Eastern time.

Hi friends -- we're doing a live chat tomorrow at 11 a.m. to answer your questions about the government shutdown.

Drop us questions now! And I hope you'll join us!

Russell Vought, Trump’s Shadow President From the wholesale gutting of federal agencies to the ongoing government shutdown, Russell Vought has drawn the road map for Trump’s second term. Vought has consolidated power to an extent that inside...

ProPublica's @andykroll.bsky.social had a *great* piece on Russ Vought earlier this month.

If you've got a moment to sit and read, it's worth your time:
www.propublica.org/article/russ...

For most of you following the government shutdown closely, you may already know Russell Vought.

If you haven’t been, here’s the introduction you need to Donald Trump’s “grim reaper.”

Brian Kelly, call your office.

Not quite. $20 billion of public money, $20 billion of private sector money.

The US government isn’t funded — but the Trump administration just funded a bailout for 🇦🇷 Argentina.

It’s a geopolitical power play.

Let’s dig into it.

Bessent says bailout for Argentina will double to boost U.S. influence in region The Trump administration is working to arrange private sector financing for Argentina that would double the total U.S. financial lifeline for the embattled Latin nation.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the bailout for Argentina, now doubled to $40 billion, is part of an effort to swing Latin America to the right

@jacobbogage.bsky.social @davidjlynch.bsky.social David Feliba report

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Secret Service are considered law enforcement, but unclear if they are a priority to get paid.

White House and congressional staffers are not getting paid right now, but many are considered essential and are still working.

Yeah ICE is law enforcement. So there’s a push to get them paid.

The government shutdown shows no signs of letting up.

Broke out the handy signs to run through who's getting paid right now, and why/why not.

Questions? Reply in the thread and I’ll work through them today.

More than 1,000 CDC staff receive layoff notices during government shutdown Another round of mass layoffs has struck CDC. The agency had already been cut during a reorganization this year, and more employees are now being shed amid the government shutdown.

BREAKING: Some of the layoffs at CDC are being REVERSED.
Here is my updated story.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

We're doing what now?

Trump threatened shutdown layoffs. So far, he hasn’t followed through. One week into a shutdown that shows no sign of ending, there’s also no sign of the dire consequences that President Donald Trump predicted.

Are we getting a TACO moment on the mass layoffs Trump promised during a shutdown?

Purpose You have requested my legal opinion regarding whether Congress, in an appropriations Act ending the current lapse in appropriations, would have to appropriate funds specifically for the retroactive pay of furloughed Federal employees’ salaries, or whether the 2019 amendments to the Antideficiency Act (ADA) make such action legally unnecessary. Summary The 2019 amendments to the ADA are not self-executing. Therefore, for retroactive pay to be provided to furloughed employees, the appropriations Act ending the lapse in appropriation must specifically provide an appropriation for such purpose. Discussion The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 (Public Law 116-1) and the Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019 (Public Law 116-5) (collectively referred to herein as “GEFTA”) were enacted during the 2019 lapse in appropriations. Public Law 116-5 was also the law that ended that lapse in appropriations. These two laws amended the Antideficiency Act to read: Each employee of the United States Government or of a District of Columbia public employer furloughed as a result of a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations, and each excepted employee who is required to perform work during a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for such work, at the

employee's standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates, and subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse. 31 U.S.C. § 1341(c)(2) (emphasis added). When GEFTA was enacted, it stated that furloughed employees “shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations . . . at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends.” 31 U.S.C. § 1341(c)(2) (as added by GEFTA sec. 2). Subsequently, Public Law 116-5 further amended § 1341(c)(2) to specify that the advance promise of post-lapse payments is “subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse.” Excepted employees are required to work during a lapse, and therefore the government incurs binding legal obligations for their salaries which must be paid once an Act providing appropriations for those salaries is enacted. In contrast, the government does not incur obligations for furloughed employees’ salaries, because they are not performing services for the government while furloughed. “The term ‘obligation’ has a well-understood meaning in fiscal law[.]” The Anti-Deficiency Act Implications of Consent by Government Employees to Online Terms of Service Agreements Containing Open-Ended Indemnification Clauses, 36 Op. O.L.C. _, at *7 (Mar. 27, 2012). It means a “‘definite commitment that creates a legal liability of the government for the payment of goods and services ordered or received, or a legal duty on the part of the United States that could mature into a legal liability by virtue of actions on the part of the other party beyond the control of the United States.’” Id. (quoting Gov’t Accountability Office, GAO-05-734SP, A Glossary of Terms Used in the Federal Budget Process 70 (2005)); see also 2 Gov’t Accountability Office, Principles of Federal Appropriations Law 7-3 to 7-4 (3d ed. 2006). GEFTA’s amendments to the ADA did nothing to create an obligation on the part of the governme…

This conclusion is not only the best interpretation of the text of GEFTA, it is also the most practical and coherent one. To conclude that GEFTA provides an automatic appropriation for the salaries of furloughed workers upon enactment of an appropriations Act ending the lapse would effectively collapse the distinction between excepted and furloughed employees. If payment pursuant to GEFTA were guaranteed, agencies could end all furloughs, because to do so would not result in the government incurring additional obligations. Yet the statute clearly maintains (and is premised upon) the distinction between furloughed and excepted employees, and we must give meaning to such distinction. Finally, the conclusion here is supported by the facts surrounding the enactment of GEFTA. When GEFTA was enacted, neither OMB nor the Congressional Budget Office scored it as mandatory spending, demonstrating that both the contemporaneous Congress and Executive Branch did not understand GEFTA to be creating an obligation. Moreover, as noted above, Public Law 116-5 not only amended § 1341(c)(2) to add the phrase, “subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse” but also was the very appropriations Act that ended the 2019 lapse, as contemplated by GEFTA. Yet in that Act Congress expressly included an appropriation for furloughed employees’ back-pay that stated, “Amounts made available in this Act for personnel pay, allowances, and benefits in each department and agency shall be available for obligations incurred pursuant to subsection (c) of section 1341 of title 31, United States Code.” Public Law 116-5, § 101(2) (amending the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019 (division C of Public Law 115–245)). This shows that Congress believed that GEFTA was not self-executing, and that an appropriations Act that ended the lapse in appropriations but that was silent as to whether it provided funds for furloughed employees’ back pay would not be sufficient to provide such payments.…

⚡ The Trump admin's budget office is arguing that furloughed workers are not entitled to backpay after the shutdown ends.

We got the memo laying out their case. Here it is.

Read more (gift link): wapo.st/47dbJEe

Republicans were so concerned that their own "One Big Beautiful Bill" cut Medicare too much that they created a $50 billion bailout fund for rural hospitals they felt could collapse.

Not stopping. They could get paid? Large parts of DHS are getting funded through the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

Nope

You know, that’s a good question. I’m gonna get an answer on that today.

There’s a difference between exempt from closure and paying employees. By law, no money can be drawn from the Treasury during a shutdown.

If agencies have money, in some cases, they can spend those. Otherwise, essential functions stay open without spending authority. And they’re not paying anyone.

The only people getting paid are members of Congress and the president, and that’s because their compensation is required by the Constitution. Nobody else gets paid during a shutdown.

Airport should be pretty normal. But remember none of the government people there will be getting paid. So try to be extra patient and nice.

Lightning round of what’s closed and what’s open during this government shutdown.

Got questions?

Drop them in the replies and I’ll work to answer them through the day.