President Trump has been fighting with Congress to eliminate the Office of Personnel Management and is now threatening lay-offs as the fight intensifies.

According to Fox News:

Trump administration officials have put the Office of Personnel Management on the chopping block in an ambitious but controversial bid to reorganize the federal government — and they are ready to furlough or even lay off workers if Congress stands in their way.

According to an internal document obtained by The Washington Post, workers could be sent home on Oct. 1 and laid off 30 days later, if Congress will not agree to their plan to eliminate the agency — which essentially serves as HR of the federal government.

“This is a crisis building for years,” acting OPM Director Margaret Weichert told the Post. Weichert said furloughs are a “last resort we are trying to avoid,” and that “a legislative solution would be the most straightforward answer.”

The administration’s plan is to eliminate the OPM, which manages 2.1 million civilian federal workers, and divide its roles among three other agencies. Recent legislation has already called for its security clearance system to move to the Department of Defense. Most of OPM’s responsibilities would fall under the General Services Administration, and a new GSA deputy who would be appointed by the president to take over for OPM’s current agency director.

The administration is arguing that OPM is inefficient with their data security, their hiring practices, and a massive backlog of paperwork. 

The administration is also planning to move the security clearance activities performed by the agency to the Department of Defense. A move that will strip the agency budget of around $70 million.