Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, released information on day 15 of the Trump-Republican shutdown—which Trump and Republicans initiated because of their refusal to negotiate with Democrats to protect health care for millions of Americans. Today’s release highlights how the Trump Administration is using the government shutdown to illegally mass fire public servants at key agencies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

ILLEGAL: Attempting to Eliminate Hundreds of HUD Staff

As part of the Trump Administration’s mass firing of hard-working public servants, the White House on Friday illegally terminated approximately 442 HUD employees, including 103 from the Office of Public and Indian Housing, 36 from Housing Counseling, 50 from Housing Operations, 114 from Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, and 30 from Community Planning and Development. Ranking Member Waters immediately condemned this reckless action, calling it, “cruel, dangerous, and disgraceful.”

For more than 50 years, HUD has worked diligently to help families find safe and affordable housing, enforcing fair housing laws and partnering with local governments to strengthen communities across rural, suburban, and tribal areas alike.

What makes this illegal? The President has no authority to eliminate Congressionally mandated programs, including critical housing programs that millions of Americans rely on. It’s the reason why just days after the staff firings, a federal judge in California ordered the Trump Administration to temporarily halt the mass layoffs, ruling them unlawful, citing: “The evidence suggests that the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management have taken advantage of the lapse in government spending, in government functioning, to assume all bets are off, the laws don’t apply to them anymore.” Moreover, Congress has already appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars for HUD to deliver across the country. Without staff, that funding cannot be delivered, which will effectively halt critical services to:

• Families receiving rental assistance
  
• Seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities
  
• Public housing residents and homeless assistance programs
  
• Fair housing investigations protecting against discrimination
  

Unfortunately, this latest attempt to fire HUD staff is consistent with Trump’s ongoing war on the agency. Since taking office, his Administration has systematically cut funding, fired staff, and done everything in its power to weaken HUD’s mission. Now, in the middle of the Trump-Republican shutdown, they are weaponizing the lapse in appropriations to accomplish their long-held goal of dismantling the agency altogether—a malicious move that not only jeopardizes the millions of Americans who solely rely on federal assistance to keep a roof over their heads, but also accelerates the nation’s already worsening affordable housing crisis.

Trump said himself that under this Republican fueled shutdown, he would “cut Democrat programs.” But let’s be clear, since when is housing a Democratic issue? Every family, regardless of race, income, or political party, deserves a safe, fair, and affordable place to call home.

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