“The Democrats want to shut it down, so when you shut it down, you have to do layoffs,” Trump said at the White House hours before funding lapsed. As employees nervously await the administration’s plans on layoffs, about 550,000 of them will be sent home on furlough. All federal employees will still report to their jobs Wednesday morning. Democrats throughout the day Tuesday said the ball was in Trump and Republicans’ court, while suggesting any layoffs that result from the shutdown were bound to occur anyway. The Office of Personnel Management instructed agencies to prepare a "decisional memorandum” that documents the need for the layoffs.