Trump shutdown layoffs affect bipartisan priorities

President Donald Trump has promised to target only “Democrat Agencies” for permanent staff cuts during the government shutdown; but the administration’s layoffs so far have affected programs and services that cross party lines.

The White House issued thousands of reductions in force notices, known as RIFs, on Friday.

Approximately 4,200 federal employees from at least eight departments and agencies were affected.

The department that suffered the most disruption was the Treasury Department, where approximately 1,450 employees received RIF notices.

RIFs there included cutting the entire 83-person staff of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which invests in public-private partnerships to support low-income communities. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

CDFI has strong bipartisan support in Congress. After Trump signed a deal in March executive order A group of 23 senators targets funding for cuts Wrote to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Reaffirming “the critical role it plays in the communities it serves.”

The letter stated that every dollar provided to the CDFI “generates at least eight more dollars in private sector investment.”

The signatories included a group of Republican senators: Mike Crapo of Idaho, Tim Sheehy of Montana, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi and Jim Justice of West Virginia.

In late July, a longer list of Republican and Democratic senators called on White House Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to say: give CDFI quickly Congress appropriated funds for this.

CDFI employees who received RIF notices on Friday were told their service would end on Dec. 13, the Journal reported.

The second largest number of RIFs were issued to Department of Health and Human Services employees, with more than 1,300 employees reportedly affected.

But the layoffs of nearly 700 staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at DHS were reportedly reversed the next day.

But other laid-off employees, including those at the CDC’s Washington field office, Injury Center and Division of Violence Prevention, will not be rehired, The New York Times reported.

RIFs were granted to 466 employees in the Education Department.

Becky Pringle, President of the National Education Association wrote on social media Hundreds on Friday affected Department of Education services, school grants and more.

“Special education oversight. Grants to high-needs schools. Civil rights protections. Gone,” Pringle wrote. “This administration is completely destroying our education system.”

The Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, where some of the outages reportedly took place, is also among the targeted offices. Project 2025The right-wing handbook of a major government overhaul.

Some Republican senators have spoken out against the Trump administration’s firings.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement Friday that she “strongly opposes this.”[s]” Vought’s attempt to permanently lay off furloughed workers, even as it blamed the shutdown on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, wrote in an

“Laying off federal employees due to the shutdown will further harm hard-working Americans who dedicate their lives to public service and jeopardize agency missions when we eventually reopen the government,” he wrote.

The Trump administration, which blamed Democrats for the 14th-day shutdown on Tuesday, argued that the layoffs were an inevitable result of the cutoff of federal funding. that wasn’t the case in previous closures.

At the same time, Trump touted the possibility of mass cuts as an “unprecedented opportunity” to eliminate parts of the government that his Republican Party doesn’t like.

While his administration, through the Department of Government Efficiency, has made clear that cutting federal bureaucracy is a major priority, this group’s cuts have fallen short of their initial goals.

The president’s latest threats to fire are clearly partisan.

On the second day of the shutdown, Trump said he was considering cuts.Democratic Agencies“Temporarily or permanently.

“We’re only cutting Democrats’ programs,” he said at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting.

Democrats “will get a taste of their own medicine,” he added.

It was unclear what this meant, as federal agencies and programs are not divided along party lines.

Trump described them at the meeting as “very popular Democratic programs that, frankly, are not very popular with Republicans.”