and a decision had a deadline that was BEFORE any follow-on C.R. had been enacted. And thus there were no guarantees of even having funded FTEs for any "deferred resignations" (and "paid administrative leave" ).
I know during lapses (and I was still in my agency during the Green Eggs and Ham shutdown and then one other after, where the earlier Gingrich shutdown in the '90s amazingly didn't impact my agency because we actually had an appropriations bill passed for us but ended up going to work in a multi-agency building that was near empty because few others had appropriations), we were told - don't even open the lid on your laptop. There was a call-tree where the supervisor would contact you to let you know that funding had been approved. They were that strict.
If the previous C.R. had lapsed and you had people on "administrative leave" from that "Fork in the Road", then they would have no guarantee of getting any money and that "agreement" would have been in violation, and even moreso if the C.R. had different amounts appropriated and was not just a simple re-up (and they DID change the new C.R. from what was originally in the earlier one).
And another illegal and idiotic thing that happened with this was to originally have OPM doing the "Fork in the Road" emails and giving directives to Departments and agencies. THAT is not and NEVER WAS their role. OPM is NOT somehow at the top of any federal hierarchy to do something like that. They handled onboarding/payroll/benefits/retirements, etc. They did NOT have any authority to dictate to Departments and agencies what to do with their employees for staffing purposes.
But these tech bros just assumed that the government was set up like their corporate world.
Still, OPM came back around with a 2nd memo, now with what was suddenly dubbed the "deferred resignation program". But it was STILL emphasized that doing this BEFORE any follow-on C.R. was most likely a violation of the Antideficiecy Act (and THAT was GOP loons saying that).
Then it was all revised again - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143388770
And again (this time with a threat of "take it or get fired (furloughed)) - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143389792
And yes a union (NTEU) DID sue calling it unlawful - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143395194
Their suit is here and it cites the statues required for doing any kind of a "RIF" as an example, which was the threat with the "take this deal or get fired" crap sent to some agencies - https://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/document/NATIONALTREASURYEMPLOYEESUNIONetalvDONALDJTRUMPetalDocketNo125cv0/1?doc_id=X6GQQJCTJ5798KO0B4EFD0PO585
Remember, I am a LBNer and was posting many of the stories related to this since the beginning!
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