<h1>Executive uses funding lapse to threaten layoffs, pause infrastructure, and pursue pocket rescissions, reshaping federal workforce priorities</h1> The executive branch is using a government funding lapse to threaten widespread layoffs, pause targeted infrastructure allocations and pursue 'pocket rescissions' of previously appropriated funds, framing the shutdown as leverage to reshape the federal workforce and program priorities. The budget office has signaled imminent agency layoffs and withheld roughly $18 billion for urban transit projects in opposition districts. Nonpartisan estimates predict large-scale furloughs and daily wage losses with broader GDP effects. Oversight bodies have raised legal objections to some executive rescission moves, while a recent high court decision upheld a contested foreign-aid rescission, complicating separation-of-powers and appropriation disputes.