On Wednesday, the White House instructed federal agencies to prepare strategies for large-scale employee dismissals in the event of a government shutdown next week. The move signals a break from previous shutdowns, when workers were generally placed on temporary furlough.

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent the memo to federal agencies and asked them to identify programs, projects and activities where discretionary funding will lapse on October 1 if the U.S. Congress does not pass legislation to keep the federal government open.

“Programs that did not benefit from an infusion of mandatory appropriations will bear the brunt of a shutdown,” the OMB said in the memo, which the White House provided.

It was not clear whether the White House was trying to take adv

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