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A U.S. judge will consider on Monday the fate of President Donald Trump’s buyout offer to two million federal workers as Trump presses ahead with an unprecedented effort to dismantle government agencies and downsize the federal workforce. U.S. District Judge George O’Toole in Boston will hear arguments in a lawsuit brought by federal workers’ unions which claim the Trump administration’s “deferred resignation” offer to government civilian employees is illegal because the U.S. Congress has not approved funding for the scheme. Trump has tasked Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, with overseeing the purge of employees through the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The actions of DOGE, which is not a government department, have sown panic in Washington and triggered public protests and a flood of calls from angry voters to Congress worried about the access Musk’s team has been given to sensitive information in government computer systems that contain data on government payments to Americans and personal details of federal workers. Musk aides have taken senior positions at key government agencies while the billionaire has pushed for the dismantling of others, including USAID, America’s humanitarian and development aid agency, and the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, the consumer watchdog set up in 2010 after the global financial crisis. EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, PENTAGON NEXT Opposition Democrats and federal employee unions have decried the power Trump has bestowed on South African-born Musk, who appears largely unaccountable except to Trump himself. Trump says Musk does not operate unilaterally but only with his blessing. Musk and his team of young staff appear to be far exceeding the mandate given to them by an executive order Trump signed when he took office on January 20, in which DOGE was asked to provide recommendations on how to modernize technology used by the federal government. Last week Judge O’Toole temporarily paused the Thursday deadline for workers to accept Trump’s buyout plan, which offers employees pay through September if they resign now. While unions have urged members not to accept the offer, saying the Trump administration cannot be trusted to honor it, more than 65,000 government employees have so far opted to take it as of Friday. Reuters has been unable to independently verify that number, which does not include a breakdown of workers from each agency. O’Toole could decide on another temporary pause to the program, bar it outright, or allow it to proceed. A CFPB employee sounded downbeat on Sunday, saying even if the judge blocks the buyout program, he and fellow staff believe they will likely lose their jobs anyway. Russell Vought, Trump’s new acting director of the CFPB, sent an email to workers on Saturday night ordering them to cease virtually all work. On Sunday, workers received another email telling them the agency would be closed for a week starting on Monday. A labor union that represents CFPB workers filed a lawsuit late on Sunday to block Vought’s actions, arguing that he was violating Congress’s authority to set and fund the agency’s mission. The agency regulates consumer financial products and has long incurred the ire of conservatives, who view its existence as government overreach. On Friday, the same day his staff were reported to have entered the agency, Musk posted “CFPB RIP” on X, his social media platform. Trump said on Sunday he expected Musk to find billions of dollars of waste in military spending once he instructs the billionaire to turn his sights on the Pentagon. The aggressive moves by Trump and Musk are bringing new lawsuits on an almost daily basis. An effort to hollow out USAID is partially on hold after a judge’s ruling, and Trump’s effort to freeze trillions of dollars in federal loans, grants and other financial assistance has also been paused in a separate case. On Saturday a judge temporarily blocked DOGE from accessing government systems used to process trillions of dollars in payments at the Treasury Department. Tim Reid and Nate Raymond, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Tumps recent declaration that he has ordered the Treasury Department to stop minting new pennies has raised legal and constitutional questions. Lets rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if its a penny at a time, he said in a post on Truth Social, adding that pennies literally cost us more than 2 cents. While Trump has touted the move as a necessary cost-saving measure, his authority to unilaterally eliminate a form of U.S. currency is far from clear. Elon Musk, who is somehow infiltrating American policy now, has targeted the penny through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). According to a post on X, DOGE claims the penny costs over 3 cents to make, with taxpayers shouldering a $179 million bill in 2023 alone. The U.S. Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennies in fiscal year 2023, accounting for nearly 40% of the 11.4 billion coins minted for circulation. The role of Congress in currency decisions The power to regulate coinage and currency specifications is explicitly granted to Congress under Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Historically, decisions about the size, composition, and discontinuation of U.S. coins have required congressional approval. For example, the elimination of the half-cent coin in 1857 was enacted through legislation, not an executive order. The Coinage Act of 1792, along with subsequent amendments, sets clear parameters for the issuance of currency, including the penny. The Act grants Congressnot the presidentthe power to establish and modify coinage. Any fundamental changes to the pennys production, including discontinuation, would likely require an act of Congress rather than a directive from the White House. Executive authority over the U.S. mint The U.S. Mint operates under the Department of the Treasury, which falls within the executive branch. The president has the ability to direct executive agencies, but those directives must align with existing laws passed by Congress. While Trump may have the power to temporarily pause the production of pennies through administrative discretion, outright elimination of the coin would require legislative action. If Trump attempts to proceed without congressional approval, the move could be contested by lawmakers who view it as an overreach of executive power. Broader implications of discontinuing the penny Beyond the legal debate, Trumps announcement raises larger questions about the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches. If a president can unilaterally end production of a coin, what other aspects of federal monetary policy could be subject to executive whims? While many economists have long argued that eliminating the penny makes sense from a financial perspective (given that its production cost exceeds its face value), the process for doing so has proven has proven elusive for decades. If Trump wishes to end penny production permanently, he will likely need to convince Congress to pass the necessary legislation.
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump said he will announce on Monday that the United States will impose 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, including from Canada and Mexico, as well as other import duties later in the week.“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25% tariff,” he told reporters Sunday on Air Force One as he flew from Florida to New Orleans to attend the Super Bowl. When asked about aluminum, he responded, “aluminum, too” will be subject to the trade penalties.Trump also reaffirmed that he would announce “reciprocal tariffs” “probably Tuesday or Wednesday” meaning that the U.S. would impose import duties on products in cases where another country has levied duties on U.S. goods.“If they are charging us 130% and we’re charging them nothing, it’s not going to stay that way,” he told reporters.Trump’s comments are the latest example of his willingness to threaten, and in some cases to impose, import taxes. Tariffs are coming much earlier in his presidency than during his previous four years in the White House, when he prioritized tax cuts and deregulation. Trump has alternately said he sees import taxes as tools to force concessions on issues such as immigration, but also as a source of revenue to help close the government’s budget deficit.Financial markets fell on Friday after Trump first said he would impose the reciprocal tariffs. Stock prices also dropped after a measure of consumer sentiment declined on Friday, largely because many respondents cited tariffs as a growing worry. The survey also found that Americans are expecting inflation to tick up in the coming months because of the duties.Trump on Sunday did not offer any details about the steel and aluminum duties, or the reciprocal tariffs. Trump previously threatened 25% import taxes on all goods from Canada and Mexico, though he paused them for 30 days barely a week ago. At the same time, he proceeded to add 10% duties on imports from China.Yet on Friday, he said he would also delay the tariffs on the millions of small packages often from fast-fashion firms such as Temu and Shein until customs officials can figure out ways to impose them. The small packages have previously been exempt from tariffs.Trump’s latest remarks stirred immediate worry from some global trading partners.South Korea’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, called a meeting with the country’s top foreign policy and trade officials on Monday to examine how Trump’s proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum would affect its industries.The office of Choi, who also serves as the country’s finance minister, said officials discussed the potential impact and Seoul’s possible responses, but specific details of the meeting were not disclosed. The stock prices of major South Korean steelmakers, including POSCO and Hyundai Steel, dropped as the market opened on Monday. South Korea shipped about $4.8 billion worth of steel to the United States from January to November last year, which accounted for 14% of its global exports of the products during the period. Superville reported from aboard Air Force One. Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report. Christopher Rugaber and Darlene Superville, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
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