Exhibiting the identical reasoning abilities as a toddler below a blanket who thinks you possibly can’t see them if they’ll’t see you, the Trump administration has determined that, if it simply deletes references to legal guidelines, these legal guidelines will magically not apply.
There’s actually no different strategy to clarify the latest deletion of references to the 2019 Authorities Worker Truthful Therapy Act—signed into regulation by President Donald Trump himself—mandating again pay for furloughed federal employees.
Demonstrators rally in help of federal employees outdoors of the Division of Well being and Human Providers in February.
Sure, the Workplace of Administration and Price range figured that, if it eliminated references to the regulation from its FAQ, then there can be no impediments to stiffing federal staff.
The Sept. 30 model of the steering really highlighted the regulation, saying that it meant that employees can be “paid retroactively as soon as possible after the lapse ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates.”
That model is now gone from OMB’s web site, however GovExec, which first observed the change, has preserved a replica. The brand new model, dated Oct. 3, omits any reference to that regulation however is in any other case the identical. However as a result of every thing on this administration is in shambles, they seem to have forgotten to offer the reminiscence gap therapy to the longer OMB shutdown doc, which nonetheless states that furloughed employees will probably be paid.
To be honest, it’s most likely fairly powerful for Trump to maintain observe of each regulation that he’s brazenly violating.
After GovExec observed the change on Monday, it reached out to the White Home for remark, which is probably going what led to the Tuesday report that the administration is creating “guidance” that principally says that the regulation doesn’t exist or apply.
The Trump administration additionally only recently eliminated data from the Treasury Division web site relating to an 1866 regulation saying that no dwelling individual can seem on foreign money, making means for plans to mint an extremely ugly Trump coin.
However because the web is perpetually, you possibly can nonetheless discover that data on the Wayback Machine, the place you possibly can see that the Treasury Division memory-holed a whole detailed historical past of the Treasury itself, merely to cover a passing reference to that regulation.
Masterful gambit, sir! Certainly the regulation doesn’t exist now.
Oh, wait… there it’s. Nonetheless regulation, nonetheless findable.
Additionally in basic shambolic trend, whereas they’ve messily tried to delete reference to the 1866 regulation, they’re additionally saying that the Trump coin is completely fantastic as a result of they’re following a distinct regulation, the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020. So there. Take that, losers.
However there’s one small drawback: That regulation additionally doesn’t enable for pictures of individuals to look on the reverse aspect of these sorts of cash, which wouldn’t enable Trump’s entire raised-fist factor.
That is pure buffoonery—simply swift, silly strikes meant to cowl up their flailing. However the administration’s mission of deletion is rather more complete, together with eradicating on-line well being pointers, hiding jobs reviews, and deleting spending databases.
Trump is aware of that precise information and legal guidelines undermine his complete mission, which depends on disinformation being the one factor you see. However whereas he has the facility to bury issues like spending information and jobs numbers, it’s somewhat tougher to delete precise legal guidelines.
Properly, for now, anyway.
