Elizabeth Warren calls for Trump to release the jobs report despite shutdown

By Matt Egan, CNN

(CNN) — Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is calling on the Trump administration to release the September jobs report on Friday despite the ongoing government shutdown, a Senate aide told CNN on Thursday.

The monthly jobs report, compiled and published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is arguably the most critical piece of US economic data released each month. Its importance is even greater now, given concerns about weakness in the job market and the rising unemployment rate.

Former BLS employees have told Warren’s office the September labor data has been collected and is likely ready to be released, the Senate Banking Committee aide said.

“Let’s be clear: the jobs data scheduled to come out this Friday has undoubtedly been collected and the President must release it,” Warren, the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement to CNN. “Without it, the Federal Reserve will not have the full picture it needs to make decisions this month about interest rates that will impact every family across the country.” The Fed’s next two-day policy meeting is scheduled for October 28 and 29.

According to a contingency plan published earlier this week by the Labor Department, major economic data, including the all-important jobs report, won’t be released during the government shutdown because the BLS is dark. If the shutdown lasts long enough, it will also delay the collection and release of a pair of major inflation reports set to be published in mid-October.

Warren sent a letter on Tuesday to William Wiatrowski, the acting commissioner of the BLS, and Russ Vought, Trump’s budget chief, requesting the jobs report get released on Friday as previously scheduled.

“While the data has been processed and there was time to prepare for the data’s release in the event of a government shutdown, the Administration is choosing not to release Friday’s jobs report,” Warren wrote in a letter shared with CNN.

To make its case, Warren cited comments from William Beach, who served as BLS commissioner during Trump’s first term.

Beach wrote on Wednesday that the September data from the BLS surveys of businesses and households has “been collected and processed.”

“The jobs report is likely written in final draft and could be released on Friday, should the agency reopen,” Beach wrote in a Q&A published by the Fiscal Lab on Capitol Hill, an independent research center.

In a statement, the White House blamed Democrats for the shutdown. “Businesses, families, policymakers, and markets rely on timely and accurate public data for their decision-making, and it’s unfortunate that Democrats are gleefully throwing a wrench in our economy by shutting down the government to push freebies for illegal immigrants,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said.

CNN previously found that the White House’s assertions on Democrats and free health care for illegal immigrants are not true. While the Democrats are drawing a line in the sand over health care, it doesn’t involve undocumented immigrants.

The shutdown is causing an information vacuum, derailing critical government data that investors, economists, CEOs and Fed officials rely on to make decisions.

In addition to the monthly BLS data on jobs and inflation, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, a federal agency housed inside the Commerce Department, said Wednesday it is required to suspend operations until Congress appropriates funding for this fiscal year.

That suspension will prevent the release of BEA economic data scheduled to be released during the shutdown, the agency said. That includes import and export data due on October 7 and, potentially, gross domestic product and inflation data due out at the end of October.

The shutdown could force investors and Fed officials to rely on alternative data to get insights into the health of the US economy.

A report released Wednesday by ADP found private-sector payrolls unexpectedly plunged last month, suggesting softness in the job market continued into September.

While the ADP report has a mixed track record at predicting the broader BLS report, the shutdown has forced investors to put more weight on the ADP report.

“Donald Trump has the power to make sure the federal government can continue producing and releasing this critical information on Friday and beyond during his shutdown,” Warren said in the statement.

Clarification: Sen. Warren’s office has updated their sources of information. They are former BLS employees.

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