President Donald Trump’s administration last week ordered at least 30,000 Internal Revenue Service employees back to their offices, where they have been working without pay to process taxpayer refunds. But from a processing center in Ogden, Utah, to the Brookhaven campus on New York’s Long Island, hundreds have received permission to skip work during the partial government shutdown due to financial hardship — and there may be more absences as part of a coordinated protest that could hamper the government’s ability to process refunds on time. [WaPost]
Topping the news: Sen. Mitt Romney’s first town hall meeting focused on the government shutdown, for which he blamed federal leaders and said they were using people “as pawns.