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reverse precedent in the face of public pressure.

Proof positive the orange anus is playing a losing hand. Bam!!!!

doesn't turn on him. What a goddamned lowlife. If I were an IRS agent, I'd suddenly get very, very sick. What a colossal asshole.

You only got ten fingers and a mushroom. Good luck.

as we are seeing, they are selective, flexible and don't work. What a nightmare.

And the Justice Department, or what is left of it, will do nothing.

The president doesn't control the purse strings, how the hell can he do this legally?

Speaker Pelosi is introducing a bill Wednesday to open up the IRS so that people can get their refunds. Trump saw this and just unilaterally did it on his own? The sob is our king. We need to impeach the motherfucker then jail him.

I think certain donors let it be known they had Better Get Their Refunds.

Every government agency has policies in place for dealing with shutdowns. The White House doesn’t get to dictate who get furloughed, who works for free, or anything else along those lines.

Pelosi was introducing a bill to reopen the IRS on Wednesday and Trump beat her to the punch. I guess the House doesn't control the purse strings any more, the king does.

Government agencies DO have policies in place for dealing with shutdowns... but government agencies are also part of the executive branch. Those policies are executive branch policies.

They can tell them to change their policy as long as it doesn't violate an existing law. Who would have standing to sue the administration in court to NOT get a tax refund is a better question.

I'm not seeing this legally happening, unless I'm missing something here?

but there was also a class action lawsuit filed where 25,000 eligible for the suit, signed on and there was a successful ruling -

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/02/17/back-pay-awarded-due-to-2013-government-shutdown/?utm_term=.ae601b1cc88c

https://www.fedsmith.com/2017/02/17/court-awards-back-pay-to-federal-employees-over-2013-government-shutdown/

2017 filings related to this here -https://ecf.cofc.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2013cv0834-160-0 (PDF)

More (in addition to strategy for current shutdown): https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2019/01/07/unions-file-lawsuit-as-irs-other-federal-employees-ordered-back-to-work-without-pay/

I *believe* the legal issue is specifically the FLSA-covered (Federal Labor Standards Act) employees (those who are minimum wage/hourly employees) and requirement for pay and overtime if forced to work. And IIRC, those covered are the "wage grade" (WG) folks versus the General Schedule (GS) folks. Each type has its own pay scale in the federal government.

FLSA - https://www.dol.gov/whd/flsa/

That specific type of furloughed worker is already working without pay now.

What they're trying to do here is force furloughed IRS employees who are not essential to "protect the safety of human life or property" to work without pay. Which seems like an important distinction.

What they are doing is part and parcel of the same type of cherry-picking that was done in 2013. I.e., with the civilians in DOD. Additionally, SSA brought back staff in 2013 to handle distribution of SS payments. Some other examples can be found here -

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/agencies-increasingly-calling-back-furloughed-workers/2013/10/10/7458d326-311e-11e3-8627-c5d7de0a046b_story.html?utm_term=.619ad26d4934

Summary of the last shutdown -

https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2013/10/16/235442199/how-we-got-here-a-shutdown-timeline

Cherry-picking.

Even if they can force them back to work, I suspect they don't realize how many people this will amount to. There are several overlapping departments which would have to be available to receive and process the returns and keep the system functioning. Even then I'm not sure the Treasury Dept. can issue the checks since it's closed down all but the positions covered under The Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 as essential via the threat to life or property clause. Which means more people would have to be brought back to work to make that happen.

By the time they're done they're going to have 2/3 of the IRS and a hefty chunk of the Treasury Dept called back in from furlough.

I.e., anyone working who is not authorized by LAW ("law" meaning that thing that Congress passes and some President has already signed or defacto approved, not something deemed do-able by some flunky appointee) would be an "unauthorized procurement".

I posted about the issue here - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2239126

Change their status from non-exempt to exempt. If they don't report to work they are considered AWOL and can be disciplined and/or terminated.