Andrea Hsu

speaker

1,135 appearances 153 recordings 3 series first heard Oct 2024 last heard 18 Sep

Andrea Hsu’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 128 in all, peaking in Dec 2025 with 25.

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Up First from NPR · Venezuela Escalation, Shutdown Layoffs Paused, Military Pay · 16 Oct 2025 podcast

And this applies to 30-some government agencies where the unions have members.

What are they arguing?

They say the Trump administration is illegally using the shutdown to engage in what they call politically driven rifts or reductions in force.

And, you know, in their briefs and in court, the unions brought up the harm that federal workers are already suffering as a result.

You know, they say it's been a tumultuous year for federal workers, and now thousands are getting laid off during a shutdown, which means, you know, the HR staff they need to go to for paperwork, for

information about how to continue their health care, those people are furloughed.

The union's attorney said there are employees who are pregnant who are worried they won't have health insurance when their babies arrive.

And the court also heard that some employees didn't get layoff notices sent to them because they were told not to check their work email during the shutdown.

And still others were locked out of their email because their passwords had expired and the IT staff who could help them

Wow.

Judge Ilston said it's clear the administration is doing things without fully thinking them through.

Well, the government's attorney, Elizabeth Hedges, tried to convince the judge that she shouldn't even be hearing the case at all and that cases involving personnel issues in the government have to be heard by a particular agency that handles such matters.

And Leila, that agency is also shut down right now.

Hedges also said most government agencies have not come to final decisions about whether to lay off staff or how many to lay off, so it would be inappropriate for the court to issue a blanket pause.

But Judge Ilston kept pressing Hedges to explain why the government believes the shutdowns are legal, and Hedges repeatedly said she was not prepared to give the government's position on the merits.

You know, Ilston seemed pretty frustrated by this.

She said the hatchet is falling on the heads of employees all across the nation and you're not prepared to address whether that's legal.

Well, typically two weeks.

There will be another hearing on October 28th when the judge will consider indefinitely pausing the layoffs.

Now, temporary restraining orders are meant to be stopgap measures.

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