A Freaked Out Obama Administration Urges Defense Firms To Risk Breaking The Law

The law states simply that if private defense firms are going to lay off their employees, they must give those employees at least 60 days notice.

But the automatic defense cuts associated with the fiscal cliff, and the notifications that would be required if defense firms plan to lay off employees, has created an election concern for the Obama administration.

So, the administration has decided to offer to bankroll the legal fees that these companies may incur if they opt not to notify employees 60 days prior to the layoffs, as the law stipulates.

Megan McArdle of The Daily Beast reports:

The government's guarantee to foot the bill for legal problems, as long as contractors heed OMB's advice to refrain from warning about lob losses, is unusual. "I don't know of any situation where the government has done this in the past," said William Gould, a labor professor at Stanford Law School.

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