Latest news with #DanielWiessner
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Job Corps contractors sue to block Trump's program closure
By Daniel Wiessner (Reuters) -The administration of President Donald Trump was hit with a lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to block it from eliminating Job Corps, the largest U.S. job training program for low-income youth. A trade group representing contractors that operate Job Corps centers and some of its members claim the U.S. Department of Labor is violating federal law and its own regulations by abruptly shuttering the program, a plan the agency announced last week. The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court. Job Corps was created by Congress in 1964 and allows 16-to-24-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds to obtain high school diplomas or an equivalent, vocational certificates and licenses and on-the-job training. The program currently serves about 25,000 people at 120 Job Corps centers run by contractors. The Labor Department in announcing the end of the program said it was not cost effective, had a low graduation rate and was not placing participants in stable jobs. The department also said there had been thousands of instances of violence, drug use and security breaches at Job Corps centers. The National Job Corps Association and other plaintiffs in Tuesday's lawsuit said the Labor Department does not have the power to dismantle a program established and funded by Congress. "Shuttering Job Corps will have disastrous, irreparable consequences, including displacing tens of thousands of vulnerable young people [and] destroying companies that have long operated Job Corps centers in reliance on the Government's support for the program," they said. The Labor Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Shuttering Job Corps is a small piece of a broader effort by Trump, a Republican, and his appointees to drastically shrink the federal bureaucracy, including by getting rid of some offices and agencies altogether. But the lawsuit filed on Tuesday said Congress in creating Job Corps also limited the Labor Department's ability to shut down the program. Federal law, for example, allows the department to close individual Job Corps centers only after seeking public comment and notifying local members of Congress, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit seeks to block the Labor Department from closing Job Corps centers and otherwise eliminating the program. The plaintiffs said they would seek an order requiring the program to continue pending the outcome of the lawsuit.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump administration moves to fast-track firings of federal workers for misconduct
By Daniel Wiessner (Reuters) -President Donald Trump's administration moved on Tuesday to make it easier to fire federal employees for misconduct, the latest step in a broader effort to overhaul the civil service and shrink the federal bureaucracy. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management published a proposed rule that would allow the office, which acts as the federal government's human resources department, to direct other agencies to fire employees for conduct such as tax evasion, leaking sensitive information and refusing to testify in other workers' disciplinary cases. The rule would extend OPM's existing power to designate job applicants as unsuitable for federal employment, to current federal employees, a change it said was necessary to hold government workers accountable to the public. Federal workers have for decades been covered by an array of job protections, including the ability to contest firings by engaging in a lengthy administrative process. The proposal would allow agencies to refer misconduct cases to OPM instead of going through the traditional disciplinary process. If OPM determines that removal of an employee is required, an agency would have five days to terminate them. "Illogically, the government has far greater ability to bar someone from federal employment who has committed a serious crime or misconduct in the past than it does to remove someone who engages in the exact same behavior as a federal employee," OPM said in the proposal. The publication of the proposal kicked off a 30-day public comment period. Since Trump's second term began in January, the administration has moved aggressively to shrink the federal bureaucracy, including directing mass firings and layoffs and implementing changes to the civil service. Many of those policies have been met with court challenges and some have been temporarily blocked by judges. OPM, which is closely linked to the White House, has played a key role in those efforts by attempting to give Trump more direct control of the federal workforce. Many unions, Democrats and advocacy groups have said Trump's various policies violate complex federal civil service and labor laws meant to regulate government employment and ensure that federal workers are insulated from political influence. OPM on Tuesday said the policies agencies have followed for decades rely on overly cumbersome and restrictive procedures that protect misconduct. "This arbitrary state of affairs seriously impairs the efficiency, effectiveness, and public perception of the Federal service," the agency said.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US court won't lift judge's block on Trump's government overhaul
By Daniel Wiessner (Reuters) -A U.S. appeals court on Friday refused to pause a judge's ruling blocking President Donald Trump's administration from carrying out mass layoffs of federal workers and a restructuring of government agencies as part of a sweeping government overhaul. The decision by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means that, for now, the Trump administration cannot proceed with plans to shed tens of thousands of federal jobs and shutter many government offices and programs. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco on May 22 blocked large-scale layoffs at about 20 federal agencies, agreeing with a group of unions, nonprofits and municipalities that the president may only restructure agencies when authorized by Congress. A three-judge 9th Circuit panel on Friday denied the Trump administration's bid to stay Illston's decision pending an appeal, which could take months to resolve. The administration will likely now ask the U.S. Supreme Court to pause the ruling.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
States sue over Trump cuts to research funding, STEM diversity efforts
By Daniel Wiessner (Reuters) -A group of U.S. states filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to block the administration of President Donald Trump from making massive cuts to federal funding for scientific research and projects focused on increasing diversity in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. The attorneys general of 16 states, including New York, California, Illinois, and New Jersey, say the Trump administration lacks the power to cap research funding and eliminate diversity programs provided by the National Science Foundation that were mandated by Congress. The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court. Earlier this month, 13 major U.S. universities sued over NSF's decision to cap reimbursement for indirect research costs such as lab space and equipment at 15%, which mirrored funding cuts at the National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Energy that judges have temporarily blocked. Wednesday's lawsuit also challenges the cap at NSF along with the elimination of programs designed to boost the participation of women, minorities and people with disabilities in STEM fields. The states say both efforts could cause the U.S. to lose its position as a global leader in STEM research. "Institutions will not be able to maintain essential research infrastructure and will be forced to significantly scale back or halt research, abandon numerous projects, and lay off staff," they said. The NSF declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House has proposed slashing NSF's $8.8 billion budget by more than 55%, and said it plans to restructure and drastically downsize the agency. New York Attorney General Letitia James said people use technology made possible by NSF funding every time they go online, scan a barcode at a store, or get an MRI scan. 'This administration's attacks on basic science and essential efforts to ensure diversity in STEM will weaken our economy and our national security," James, a Democrat, said in a statement. The states claim that the reimbursement cap would devastate scientific research at universities throughout the country. James' office said New York state universities received $104 million in NSF funding last year, which supported research into microelectronics, climate research and battery technology. They claim the cap and the elimination of diversity programs violate a federal law barring "arbitrary and capricious" actions by agencies, and violate the constitutional separation of powers by encroaching on funding decisions made by Congress.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US judge nixes Treasury's bid to cancel IRS workers' union contract
By Daniel Wiessner (Reuters) -A federal judge has rejected a bid by the U.S. Treasury Department to cancel a union contract covering tens of thousands of IRS staff, an early blow to President Donald Trump's efforts to eliminate collective bargaining rights for many federal workers. U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves in Lexington, Kentucky, said in a written opinion late Tuesday that the department lacked legal standing to bring a lawsuit against the National Treasury Employees Union. After Trump issued an executive order exempting Treasury and other agencies from union bargaining obligations, the agency sued an affiliate of the NTEU that represents Internal Revenue Service employees, to invalidate a bargaining agreement reached in 2022. Reeves, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush, dismissed the case, saying the lawsuit was premature because Treasury had not yet taken any steps to implement Trump's order. "This decision says nothing of the merits of the case," the judge wrote. "Had Treasury filed suit in response to an invasion or threatened invasion of its sovereign right to enforce [Trump's order], a different result likely would have been reached." A U.S. appeals court last week paused a ruling by a judge in Washington, D.C., that had blocked seven agencies including Treasury from implementing Trump's order in a lawsuit by the NTEU. The White House, the Treasury Department and the NTEU did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump in the executive order excluded from collective bargaining obligations agencies that he said "have as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work". The order applies to the Justice, State, Defense, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services departments, among other agencies. The NTEU has said the order applies to about 100,000 of its 160,000 members. The Treasury Department sued the NTEU affiliate a day after Trump issued the order, seeking a declaration that gave Treasury the authority to end its bargaining relationship with the union. The department said that federal civil service law empowers the president to exempt agencies from bargaining when he deems it necessary to protect national security, and that courts lack the authority to review and second guess those determinations. NTEU and other federal worker unions have accused Trump of issuing the order to punish them for bringing legal challenges to a number of his policies. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington, D.C., ruled in the NTEU's lawsuit in April that Trump had not adequately justified reversing decades of practice and exempting large swaths of the federal workforce from bargaining. But an appeals court panel in blocking that ruling said it was likely to be overturned on appeal. Eight federal agencies have filed a separate lawsuit against the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal worker union, seeking to invalidate existing union contracts covering thousands of workers. The union has moved to dismiss that case, with a hearing scheduled for June.
