Prof. Nick Bednar ’16 Quoted by New York Times About Federal Workers Not Rehired After Shutdown

Professor Nick Bednar ’16 was quoted by the New York Times about a group of former General Services Administration workers who are accusing the Trump administration of breaking the law for refusing to reinstate them following the government shutdown. Thirty-five former employees of the General Services Administration argue that they should have been reinstated under the spending law that ended the shutdown, which included a provision that reversed any layoff that occurred during the lapse in federal spending that began on Oct. 1. But while the administration reinstated thousands of laid-off federal workers within five days of the government’s reopening, it did not include those whose termination had been set in motion before the shutdown began. Prof. Benar said language in the law made it clear that Congress meant for the law to cover any federal worker at any stage in the  reductions in force (RIF) process — not just those who were first told they were being laid off after the shutdown began. The law states that any reduction in force “proposed, noticed, initiated, executed, implemented or otherwise taken” during the shutdown “shall have no force or effect.” He said, “If Congress only wanted to cover RIFs where the notice was issued after Oct. 1, it did not need to include the words ‘executed’ or ‘implementation.’ Yet it did.”