John: Good evening.

I'm John Yang.

The battle lines are drawn for tomorrow's high-stakes oval office meeting between president trump and bipartisan congressional leaders, one day before the deadline to avert a government shutdown.

Appearing separately on NBC's "Meet the press," senate majority leader John Thune and minority leader chuck Schumer each said the other would be to blame for a shutdown.

Sen.

Thune: I think there is potentially a path forward.

We have to see where it goes, but we can't do it while the American people are being held hostage by the Democrats in a government shutdown.

Sen.

Schumer: We need a serious negotiation.

Now, if the president at this meeting is going to rant and just yell at Democrats and talk about all his alleged grievances and say this, that and the other thing we won't get anything , done.

John: Republicans want a short-term spending bill without any other provisions, while Democrats say the price of their support is restoring medicaid cuts and extending subsidies that help low- and middle-income earners buy health insurance under the affordable care act.

Adding to the uncertainty are administration plans to use a shutdown to fire more federal workers.

Eric Katz covers federal agencies for the online publication government executive.

Tell us about these plans to use this shut to fire more federal workers.

Eric: The white house through its budget office put out guidance in the past week advising agencies to develop plans, instead of having normal furloughs, employees are sent home only until the shutdown ends, instead they would be sent home permanently, lose their jobs.

The white house said the agency should focus on any federal employee who does not receive special funding for their job.

So anyone funded through normal annual appropriation, and anyone whose work is not focused on trump administration priorities.

Certain areas would be exempted, but large swabs of the federal - - swathes of the federal government would face potential layoffs.

John: How does this fit in with the government -- the president's goal of reshaping the federal government to make it smaller?

Eric: Trump has been focused on tricking the size of the federal government since he took office.

Not long after he took office, he ordered similar layoff plans from every agency.

A couple agencies went through with those, health and human services.

They laid off 10,000 people.

But a lot of those got held up in court.

The administration took other steps to shrink the federal workforce through various incentives.

I believe the administration said 200,000 or 300,000 federal employees will be off the rolls by September compared to what they inherited in January.

They also have a hiring freeze so very few new employees are coming in.

This is the next step in that process to potentially further shrink the agency's workforces.

John: In your conversations with federal workers, is this adding to anxiety and concern as we face a possible shutdown?

Eric: It absolutely is.

We talked to a lot of folks over the past few days since this memo came out.

Everyone is sort of panicked.

There is always a bit of anxiety during a shutdown.

In a normal shutdown they continue to work, and there is the promise of delayed pay.

They face negative rhetoric from the administration over the last several months.

They have been incentivized, pushed and in some cases forced out of their jobs.

This is the next step in that.

We have been hearing from folks over the past few months that their workforces are already trimmed back to the bone.

They are already struggling to carry out key functions.

Some of these agencies have less oversight like national parks.

There are bathrooms not being cleaned, certain services no longer being offered.

We reported on the forest service, they are struggling to keep pace.

It goes down the gamut.

We talked to people of veterans affairs saying they are not able to get services they use to.

If there are further cuts, it would only exacerbate issues we have been hearing about.

Employees, you talk about morale.

Employees have been saying for months because of pressure to leave and because of some of the rhetoric from the white house, they feel attacked, villain eyes - - villainized.

They are saying this is continuing to add to that.

John: A lot of people when they hear federal workers they think of Washington, D.C., but it goes beyond that, doesn't it?

Eric: Only 15% of the federal workforce is in the D.C.

Area.

The vast majority is spread out across the country and the world in some cases.

Before this memo, the interior department for example is contemplating and preparing for widespread layoffs.

Those employees are national parks and in regional offices across the country.

The social security administration, the V.A., all sorts of land management agencies in addition to interior.

Even EPA enforcement.

These people are not just in D.C., but in offices around the country.

Some of them would most certainly be subject to these layoffs.

John: Eric Katz of Government Executive, thank you very much