U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought fired thousands of federal workers today during the ongoing government shutdown. 

Historically, civil servants are temporarily furloughed during shutdowns and receive back pay when the government reopens. However, OMB has used the ongoing government shutdown as cover to dismiss federal workers permanently and stated in a recent memo they don’t owe federal employees any back pay.

Vought, President Donald Trump, and other Congressional Republicans have attempted to blame Democrats for the firings even though the GOP controls the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House.

Democrats are trying to preserve affordable health care subsidies in the Congressional budget for nearly 4 million Americans who could lose coverage and 22 million people who could see their insurance premiums skyrocket without action.

Following the announcement, the BlueGreen Alliance issued a statement from Executive Director Jason Walsh:

“Instead of engaging in meaningful negotiation to save healthcare for millions of Americans, Trump and the GOP shut down the government. They continue to use working people as pawns in their blame game, and now they’re laying off more federal workers permanently instead of choosing to preserve their jobs and temporarily furlough them. We need leaders who put the American people first—not ones who play politics with people’s lives.”