More than three weeks into the government shutdown, the Trump administration is calling back furloughed workers at the federal agency that administers health care for millions of Americans.
Thousands of employees at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are being instructed to return to work on Monday. They have been off the job since Oct. 1 after Congress failed to reach a deal to fund the government.
The callbacks at CMS demonstrate the lengths to which President Donald Trump’s administration is going to protect certain politically popular services as the shutdown drags on, often employing creative or questionable accounting maneuvers to fund specific work.
A spokesperson said the agency would be tapping fees it collects from users who pay for CMS research data to pay the recalled workers. They noted that open enrollment has already begun for Medicare and will soon begin for the Affordable Care Act.
“In order to best serve the American people … CMS is temporarily calling back all furloughed employees on Monday, October 27,” the spokesperson said in an email. “CMS will continue to abide by rules governing the Democrat-led government shutdown.”
Nearly half of the agency’s more than 6,000 workers would have been furloughed, according to its contingency plan.
The decision to bring them back was first reported by Axios.
Hoping to avoid blame from voters for the shutdown, the Trump administration has been rummaging through the couch cushions in search of money that could fund some operations during the appropriations lapse. A prime example would be using national park entrance fees to help keep parks open even though the park service is not funded by Congress at the moment.
The White House has also devised ways to keep paying favored government employees, like immigration officers and military members, even though some legal and budget scholars say Trump is usurping Congress’ control of the purse by doing so.
The shutdown entered its fourth week on Wednesday as Democrats stood firm on their demand that Republicans extend subsidies for people who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Recent polling has shown voters are more likely to blame Republicans than Democrats for the impasse.
Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, said agencies can use certain fee money — known as “offsetting collections” — to legally fund activities during the shutdown. He noted that federal courts have been using such money to continue operating despite the funding lapse.
“As long as it’s an offsetting collection, it’s true, honest-to-God money they’re allowed to use at their discretion,” he said.
Kogan said Trump has been violating the law by refusing to spend money Congress has appropriated and also by spending money Congress has not authorized it to — for example, by tapping Defense Department research-and-development funds to pay the troops.
In the case of the CMS funds, Kogan said, the legality depends on which fees they draw from and what the statute authorizes them to be used for — details that could take time to sort out.
“It’s totally possible they have legit money but then are going beyond the [allowed] purpose,” he said.