Up First from NPR - Congress Budget Vote, Trump Speaks At DOJ, Federal Workers Reinstated
Episode Date: March 14, 2025Congress faces a shutdown deadline today as Senate Democrats weigh whether to back a Republican spending bill or risk being blamed for closing the government. President Trump makes a rare visit to the... Justice Department, delivering a speech on law and order while his administration purges career prosecutors. And, federal judges order thousands of fired government workers to be reinstated, but legal battles could delay their return.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Kelsey Snell, Anna Yukhananov, Ben Swayse, Alice Woelfle and Mohamad ElBardicy.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis, our technical director is Carleigh Strange.Our Executive Producer is Jay ShaylorLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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The Senate Democratic leader now backs a Republican bill to fund the government.
A shutdown would give Donald Trump and Elon Musk carte blanche to destroy vital government
services.
We hear his case for a bill he hates.
I'm Stephen Skeep with Laila Fadal and this is Up First from NPR News.
Past presidents kept some distance
from the Justice Department
to avoid the appearance of political interference.
Today, President Trump delivers a speech there
on what he says is law and order.
What are his orders to federal agents and prosecutors?
Two federal judges say the Trump administration
may have broken the law
when they dismiss thousands of federal employees,
but will they permanently get their jobs back? You have a huge loss of institutional knowledge. It's just decimated the government.
Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.
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Federal agencies run out of money at the end of today.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a spending bill earlier this week that would keep the government open.
It funds the government through the end of September with money mostly unchanged, except
it raises defense spending and cuts money for the District of Columbia, among other
things.
It's written in a way that may give President Trump more leeway to make cuts of his own.
Republicans need the votes from Democrats to get the bill through the Senate, leaving
Democrats with the choice to support this bill. They hate or allow a government shutdown.
And PR congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh joins us now. Good morning.
Good morning.
Okay. So many Democrats had said they wouldn't vote yes on the spending bill to push back
on these legally questionable government cuts. Is that still the case? Are they going to
make good on that threat? Is there going to be a shutdown?
It does not look like we are heading towards a shutdown. Democrats are not happy with this bill at all. It was written without their input, but enough are expected
to join with Republicans to pass it later today. Since the House passed this bill largely
along party lines on Tuesday, Senate Democrats have been debating and agonizing about what
to do. Do they help Republicans avoid a shutdown or block the bill and trigger one?
They say both options are terrible.
Last night, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer argued a shutdown would be worse.
A shutdown would give Donald Trump and Elon Musk carte blanche to destroy vital government
services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now.
OK, so you say it looks like there won't be a shutdown.
So do you expect most or all Democrats to follow suit and back the bill now?
No, most will vote against it, but we expect enough will join Republicans to get it through.
Schumer declined to say how many, but his support does give undecided Democrats the cover to vote yes.
Republicans control the White House,
the House, and the Senate, but they have a 53-seat majority in the Senate, and you need
60 to get around to filibuster. They are going to need about eight Democrats to join them
later today because one of their own, Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, is planning to
vote no.
Okay, so just walk us through why the Democrats have been, and still are, so divided on what
to do here. Right. It has been intense discussions. The Democratic base is really angry about how
President Trump and Elon Musk have been slashing the federal government. They want Democrats on
Capitol Hill to use this one moment where they actually have some leverage in the minority to
fight back. But since Schumer said last night he will vote for this bill, we're already seeing some major blowback from other Democrats. All three top
House Democratic leaders put out a statement last night saying they remain
strongly opposed to the bill. And New York Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez did not mince her words talking to NPR's Barbara Sprunt last
night. I think there is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal.
And this is not just about progressive Democrats.
This is across the board, the entire party.
She also said moderates in the House,
Democrats who won in Trump districts, voted no on this.
And she said, today, House Democrats
are still going to urge Democrats to block this bill.
So what are Republicans saying about when we should expect
this vote? You know, it's Congress, so they always wait until the last minute. So we expect the vote
on this bill later this afternoon. That obviously gives Congress just hours before the deadline.
Republicans were gearing up for a message war if Democrats block the bill to label this a Schumer shutdown. That's NPR's Deirdre Walsh.
Thank you, Deirdre.
Thank you.
President Trump is expected to make a short trip down Pennsylvania Avenue today to visit
the Justice Department.
Yeah, he's going to deliver a speech which the White House bills as being about law and
order.
Trump's visit comes at a turbulent time for the department where Trump appointees have
pushed out career officials at the department who they deem insufficiently loyal to the
president.
And PR Justice correspondent Ryan Lucas joins us now with more.
Good morning, Ryan.
Good morning.
Okay, so how unusual is it for a president to deliver a speech at the Justice Department?
It's a pretty rare thing.
Biden never did it.
Trump didn't do it in his first term.
In fact, I could only find four occasions that it has happened since 2000.
Twice President Obama did it.
The first time was a speech about changes his administration was making to surveillance
programs.
The other time was at a farewell ceremony for his first attorney general.
The other two instances were early in President George W. Bush's administration, one of them
being a ceremony in 2001 to rename the department's headquarters after Robert F. Kennedy.
So it is rare for a president to do this.
Historically presidents keep their distance from the Justice Department.
There's been a norm for decades now respected by both Republican and Democratic administrations
that the department
should be independent and free from political interference.
But President Trump has made clear that he has a very different idea about the relationship
between the president and the Justice Department.
Yeah.
So what do we expect to hear from the president in his speech?
Well, we heard a bit of it at the top.
The White House says Trump is going to talk about restoring law and order, about removing
violent criminals from communities and ending what the White House says Trump is going to talk about restoring law and order, about removing violent criminals from communities, and ending what the White House says is the weaponization
of justice against Americans for their political leanings.
And that last idea there is a central theme for Trump, his allies on the Hill, and for
his new Justice Department leadership.
Trump of course argues that he was unfairly targeted by federal prosecutors during the
Biden administration.
He has promised vengeance.
The new Justice Department leadership talks a lot about ending the purported weaponization
and politicization of the Justice Department in recent years.
But at the same time, they have taken punitive action against non-political career prosecutors
and officials who worked on investigations or issues that Trump doesn't like.
Yeah.
I mean, there's been quite the purge.
Just recap some of the punitive actions we've seen.
Well, for one, the new department leadership
has fired prosecutors who worked
on the special counsel investigations into Trump,
saying that those folks couldn't be trusted
to implement the president's agenda.
They have fired prosecutors who worked
on the January 6th Capitol riot cases.
They've demoted senior career prosecutors
who worked cases involving Trump allies.
The Justice Department frames this as ending weaponization, but critics say that these
actions appear to be retaliation against folks who worked cases the president didn't like.
Now, at the same time, the department has cut breaks for Trump allies.
Critics point to the Justice Department's decision to dismiss corruption charges against
the New York City Mayor, Eric Adams.
Adams has pledged to cooperate with Trump's immigration enforcement.
More than a half dozen veteran
Justice Department prosecutors resigned in protest.
That includes the acting US attorney in Manhattan
who said there was no good faith basis
to drop the Adams case.
So with all of the things that have happened
in the past few weeks, what sort of reception
do you expect Trump to receive today?
It's a good question. It's no secret, as we've said, that Trump has been
extremely critical of the Justice Department over the years. So it's going
to be interesting to see what he has to say, how he says it, as he lays out his
vision for the department in the very building that he has been so critical of.
I'm Piers Ryan Lucas. Thank you, Ryan. Thank you. Two federal judges ordered government agencies to reinstate thousands of workers who were
recently fired by the Trump administration.
The judges say the mass firings were conducted in a way that appears to be illegal.
All of the employees were on probationary status,
meaning they were in their first year or two on the job for the most part. One ruling covers
the departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense, Agriculture, Energy, Interior, and Treasury,
a lot of federal departments. The other case was brought by Democratic State Attorneys
General and covered even more agencies, but is just temporary.
We're joined now by NPR's Chris Arnold, who has been watching all of this.
Hi Chris.
Hey Laila.
Okay, so two rulings.
Let's start with this case out of San Francisco.
What did the judge say yesterday?
The judge said a lot, actually.
This is a dramatic hearing.
This is District Judge William Alsop.
And one thing he said is that these workers were lied to about why they were fired.
He said, quote, it's a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was
based on performance when they know good and well that that is a lie.
And the idea there is that firing workers for bad performance made it easier to fire
them, but it wasn't true.
Many workers got glowing reviews from supervisors.
They'd been doing a good job.
We've spoken with some of these workers.
The judge called the mass firing a sham to get around statutory requirements. And he said that the administration exceeded its authority by having one office in the government direct so many other
agencies to just summarily fire all these workers. Okay, so some strong language there from the judge.
What was the government's argument that these were legitimate firings?
Right. The government argued that agencies made their own decisions, the firings were
proper, but the judge again said, quote, you know, I tend to doubt that you're telling
me the truth at that point. The White House is unamused by all of this. White House press
secretary Caroline Levitt said in a statement, quote, a single judge is attempting to unconstitutionally seize
the power of hiring and firing from the executive branch.
The administration has now appealed,
but now it's not a single judge.
Last night, this ruling came down in the second case
that the judge sided with
Democratic state attorneys general.
They put a 14 day stay in place on these mass firings.
The government there had argued that the states didn't have standing and hadn't been harmed
by the firings.
Interestingly, though, we should say both judges said, look, we understand the government
has a right to do a reduction in force, but it has to follow the law.
You know, Chris, this has been so chaotic for federal workers, and it's been an ongoing
fight that's really impacting
their lives.
What are you hearing from them when you speak to them?
I mean, one thing I've been struck by is that these are not all new hires.
I mean, these are probationary workers, but a lot of them have been working in an agency
for 10 years, say, and they're probationary because they just got a new job that they
just got promoted.
I talked to an employment attorney, Michelle Berkovich, about this.
She's working on another effort to reinstate workers.
I've looked at data from about 10,000 terminated employees.
And what's very clear is that you have everyone from the director or deputy director to the
student intern.
So you have a huge loss of institutional knowledge.
It's just decimated the government.
And the plaintiff's attorneys in the case say the firings have made Swiss cheese of
some of these agencies.
Okay, so now the judges ordered these workers to be reinstated.
Is that going to happen right away?
Well the judge in the SF San Francisco case said immediately.
Berkovich is saying, don't count on this.
The government's been dragging its feet with some of these orders
She's telling workers look if you're looking for another job or trying some kind of appeal just keep doing that NPR's Chris Arnold
Thank you, Chris. Thanks, Leila
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