In brief
Following the commencement of the government shutdown, the Trump administration has begun laying off more than 4,000 federal workers as part of a strategy to pressure Democrats and reduce the federal workforce. Major departments like Treasury and Health and Human Services have started issuing layoff notices, with unions challenging the legality of these actions. The layoffs represent a historic shift in how shutdowns impact federal employees, with potential implications for services nationwide.
The Trump administration has begun laying off thousands of federal workers in an effort to pressure Democrats amid the ongoing government shutdown.
The RIFs have begun, White House Office of Management Director Russell Vought announced in a post on X on Friday morning, referring to an acronym for reductions in force.
A spokesman for his office confirmed the cuts had started and were substantial. Their size and scope began coming into focus later on Friday, when the administration disclosed seven agencies had started laying off more than 4,000 workers.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to use the shutdown to further his long-held goal of reducing the federal workforce.
By law, the federal government must give its workers at least 30-days notice that it is laying them off.
After Vought's tweet, major departments such as Treasury and Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed they were issuing notices to employees, and Homeland Security, where many of its employees are considered essential, said it would lay off workers at its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
But exact details were scarce.
Two major unions, the American Federation of Government Employees and AFL-CIO, had filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of Vought's announced plans to carry out layoffs during the shutdown.
On Friday, once he said the process had begun, they asked a federal court in Northern California to temporarily block the move.
It is disgraceful that the Trump administration has used the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally fire thousands of workers who provide critical services to communities across the country, AFGE president Everett Kelley said.
In its opposition to the temporary restraining order, lawyers for the OMB revealed which agencies and how many of their employees would be affected first, indicating an estimated 4,600 employees would receive RIF notices starting on Friday.
More than a quarter of the cuts would be made at the Treasury Department, where notices were being sent to approximately 1,446 employees.
The HHS was notifying between 1,100 and 1,200 employees.
The layoffs are unprecedented. In past shutdowns, furloughed employees returned to work when the government reopened and were paid retroactively for their time away.
Both furloughed and essential workers who must still carry out their job duties are not paid when government funding is temporarily cut off.
The current shutdown began 10 days ago, after lawmakers failed to reach a deal on a funding measure to keep the government open.
Democrats have refused to vote for a Republican spending plan that would reopen the government, saying any resolution must preserve expiring tax credits that reduce health insurance costs for millions of Americans and reverse Trump's cuts to Medicaid.
Significantly culling the federal workforce has been a long-term priority for Vought. The Partnership for Public Service, a bipartisan group studying the government, estimated the federal workforce had been reduced by about 200,000 employees as of September 23.
