WASHINGTON, October 3. /TASS/. The White House intends to send about a third of its employees on unpaid leave due to the shutdown of the US federal government, according to a plan published on its website.
According to the document, 554 of the 1,733 White House employees will temporarily not come to work.
The plan also said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is responsible for reducing bloated bureaucracy and fighting red tape, and whose work was previously overseen by entrepreneur Elon Musk, will not be affected by the shutdown measures. All 45 of its employees will continue to work. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will retain 437 of its 530 employees, which is more than any other White House department.
The US federal government partially suspended operations at midnight on October 1 (4:00 a.m. GMT) due to a lack of funding. This occurred because representatives of the ruling Republican Party and the opposition Democratic Party in Congress could not agree on several spending items, including healthcare. They accuse each other of provoking and prolonging the shutdown for political purposes.
Since 1977, funding has been interrupted more than 20 times due to disagreements between the administration and Congress. The longest shutdown, which occurred during Trump's first presidential term, lasted 35 days, from December 22, 2018, to January 25, 2019.