Trump administration issues layoff notices to more than 4,000 workers during government shutdown

The Trump administration has begun laying off thousands of federal workers in an effort to pressure Democrats during the ongoing government shutdown.

“RIFs have begun,” White House Executive Office Director Russell Vought said in a post on X Friday morning, referring to the acronym for “reductions in force.”

A spokesman for his office confirmed the cuts had begun and were “significant”. Their size and scope began to become clear later Friday, when management announced that seven agencies had begun laying off more than 4,000 workers.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to use the shutdown to further his long-standing goal of reducing the federal workforce.

By law, the federal government must give employees at least 30 days’ notice that it will lay off them.

Following Vought’s tweet, major departments such as Treasury and Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed they had notified employees and said they would lay off workers at Homeland Security, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, where many of their employees are essential.

But exact details were few and far between.

Two major unions, the American Federation of Public Employees and the AFL-CIO, had filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of Vought’s announced plans to layoffs during the shutdown.

When he said Friday the process had begun, they asked a federal court in Northern California to temporarily block the move.

“It is shameful that the Trump administration used the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally lay off thousands of workers who provide critical services to communities across the country,” said AFGE president Everett Kelley.

OMB lawyers opposing the temporary restraining order explained which agencies and how many of their employees would be affected first; This showed that an estimated 4,600 employees will receive RIF notices starting Friday.

“The President, through OMB, has determined that agencies need to operate more efficiently and has directed them to consider steps to optimize their workforces in light of ongoing cuts in appropriations,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in the filing. he said.

More than a quarter of the cuts will be made at the Treasury Department, where notices were sent to about 1,446 employees.

HHS notified 1,100 to 1,200 employees, the filing said.

According to the filing, the Department of Education and the Department of Housing and Urban Development planned to lay off at least 400 employees, while the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, and Homeland Security each planned to lay off between 176 and 315 employees.

There was no indication of how many notices the agencies issued Friday.

The filing also said 20 to 30 people at the Environmental Protection Agency were sent “intent to RIF” notices on Friday, advising them they could be affected in the future. Other federal agencies may also make cuts.

Government lawyers said the labor unions failed to establish that their members would be irreparably harmed by the layoffs, which was necessary for the judge to issue the restraining order. But they said the restraining order would “irreparably harm the government.”

Officials argued that a temporary restraining order would prevent agencies from “deciding how best to organize their workforce,” noting that traditionally the government has been given the widest latitude to “refer its own internal affairs.”

Layoffs are unprecedented. In past shutdowns, furloughed employees returned to work when the government reopened and were paid retroactively for the time they were furloughed.

When government funding is temporarily cut, “essential” workers who are both furloughed and must perform their duties are not paid.

current shutdown It started 10 days ago after lawmakers failed to agree on a funding measure that would keep the government open.

“They’ve been delayed by 10 days,” Republican Senator John Thune told reporters, referring to the White House. “At some point they were going to have to make some of these decisions and prioritize where to spend money when the government was shut down.”

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Trump and Vought of causing “intentional chaos.”

Democrats have refused to vote for a Republican spending plan to reopen the government, saying any decision must preserve expiring tax credits that reduce health insurance costs for millions of Americans and reverse Trump’s cuts to Medicaid, the health program for seniors and low-income people.

Republicans accuse Democrats of needlessly shutting down the government and blame them for the knock-on effects caused by the federal walkout.

The shutdown meant “non-essential” federal employees were furloughed. It currently affects about 40% of the federal workforce, or about 750,000 people.

Furloughed employees are legally required to receive back pay after the shutdown ends and they return to work, but the Trump administration has hinted that may not happen.

Significant culling of the federal workforce has been a long-term priority for Vought.

The president and his budget chief have hailed the shutdown as a unique opportunity to make more layoffs, on top of the thousands of cuts they have made through a combination of layoffs, buyouts, furloughs and resignations since Trump returned to office in January.

The Partnership for Public Service, a bipartisan group that studies the government, estimates the federal workforce is down by about 200,000 employees as of Sept. 23.

Career services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, reported last month The government sector announced 299,755 planned redundancies this year; 289,363 of them were federal workers affected by the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), a cost-cutting effort by the White House initially led by billionaire Elon Musk.

Before the shutdown, Vought’s office instructed federal agencies to prepare reduction plans in place aimed at cutting employees or programs that might run out of funding or “are not consistent with the President’s priorities,” Politico reported.

A day after the shutdown began, Trump shared on Truth Social that he met with Vought “to determine which of the many Democratic Organizations, many of which are political frauds, it proposes to cut, and whether those cuts will be temporary or permanent.”