On October 15, Susan Illston, Senior US District Judge for the Northern District of California, issued a temporary restraining order to block the Trump Administration from firing 4,000 furloughed employees at the Department of Education and other agencies. A 2019 law, signed by Trump, requires that furloughed employees receive pay that had been withheld when a shutdown ends. The Administration now questions the interpretation of that law. Judge Illston suggested that the Administration has “taken advantage of the lapse in government spending and government functioning to assume that all bets are off, that the laws don’t apply to them anymore and that they can impose the structures that they like on the government situation that they don’t like.”

The next day, the Senate failed, for the tenth time, to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to pass a stop-gap spending bill that does not protect those who rely on the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The current shutdown is now the third longest in history, with no end in sight, surpassing the 16-day shutdown over the issue of ACA implementation. The record 35-day shutdown over border wall construction ended when Federal employee absences disrupted air travel during Trump’s first term, forcing Congress to resolve it.

What’s happening at the Social Security Administration (SSA) this month, and what is not happening, illustrates how the Trump Administration is imposing structures and disregarding the laws. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appointed SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), a made-up position not subject to Senate confirmation, to replace the IRS Commissioner forced out (as was the prior Acting SSA Commissioner) over data access issues. Bisignano now “leads” both agencies. His placement threatens the security and integrity of the largest and most sensitive databases and repositories of private information. Reportedly, these records, along with those possessed by the Department of Homeland Security, are being consolidated or cross-referenced in order to track, surveil, and deport undocumented immigrants.

So, how is SSA under Bisignano doing with what it is actually supposed to be doing? During the shutdown, SSA is not providing benefit verification letters needed by low-income recipients to apply for, or continue eligibility for, a host of federal, state, and local government programs. Updates and corrections to the earnings records that SSA relies upon to calculate payment amounts are suspended. Lost Medicare cards cannot be replaced. The cost-of-living adjustment announcement is delayed, in part because nearly all Bureau of Labor Statistics personnel that provide the needed data have been furloughed.

Most SSA employees continue to work, unpaid, at least for now. Those who need to use earned leave benefits to deal with issues caused by loss of income too often face excessive documentation requests, have requests denied, or are charged with Absence Without Leave (AWOL), while dealing with personal and family emergencies that are often caused or exacerbated by the shutdown. Those having trouble paying transportation costs are denied opportunities to work from home, even those whose duties are entirely portable, so can be fulfilled from home.

On October 16, Reuters reported that email communications from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reveal that the Administration intends to pay over 70,000 law enforcement personnel who have been working without pay by October 22. Back pay since October 1, plus payment for the next 2-week pay period, would be included. The Administration had already said it would pay military personnel and FBI agents. Excluded are the 50,000 Transportation Security Administration workers who staff airport security checkpoints.

The laws, indeed, don’t apply to them anymore, and they can impose the structures that they like on this “government situation.” It’s high time for Congress to react to the Administration’s consolidation of power, and to do its job, and for all of us to demand it.