WASHINGTON, Oct 2 — United States (US) President Donald Trump has the legal authority to start layoffs amid the ongoing government shutdown, House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said on Thursday.
"He does ... This is the way the system works. This is [US Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer's decision. Is to hand ... the keys to the kingdom to the president.
"He has put himself in that situation, and it was completely unnecessary. The President takes no pleasure in this...
"So in that situation, when Congress turns off the funding and the funding runs out, it is up to the commander in chief, the President of the United States, to determine how those resources will be spent," he told the press, reported Sputnik/RIA Novosti.
Meanwhile, the US economy is projected to incur a loss of US$15 billion (RM63 billion) each week during the federal shutdown, which equates to approximately 0.2 per cent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP), according to the White House Council of Economic Advisers' new report.
"If applied to current GDP levels, that implies an economic loss of approximately US$15 billion per week (0.2 per cent times GDP of US$30.4 trillion (RM127.8 trillion) divided by 4)," said the report, which was published on Wednesday.
Additionally, the Council has estimated that more than 1.9 million federal civilian employees face either furloughs or working without timely pay.
At the same time, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated on Tuesday that around 750,000 federal employees may be furloughed daily, resulting in a total daily compensation cost of approximately US$400 million (RM1.68 billion).
The US Congress had failed to pass the necessary appropriations bills for the new fiscal year ahead of the September 30 deadline, which triggered a federal government shutdown, affecting thousands of federal employees, military personnel, and a wide range of agencies and programmes.
The Trump administration, along with its Republican supporters, has accused Democrats of leveraging the fiscal year deadline for political gain, claiming they are holding the American people and Republicans hostage to advance their liberal agenda, including by demanding funds to provide healthcare to undocumented migrants.
