Trump admin lays off federal workers

The Trump administration began laying off thousands of federal workers across a range of agencies on Friday, the 10th day of the U.S. government shutdown.

President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon told reporters in the Oval Office that the number of federal workers who will be laid off will “be a lot.”

“It’ll be Democrat-oriented,” Trump said, reiterating his promise to target programs he believes are favored by Democratic officials.

The permanent job cuts, formally known as “Reductions in Force,” are different from the furloughing of government workers. Furloughed employees return to their jobs after a government shutdown ends.

The layoffs were first announced by Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

“The RIFs have begun,” Vought wrote on X.

OMB soon after confirmed his tweet, and said the cuts “are substantial.”

RIF notices went to workers at the departments of Treasury, Health and Human Services, Commerce, Education, Energy, EPA, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, and Interior. 

A filing by the Justice Department in U.S. District Court in San Francisco late Friday showed at least 4,000 federal workers received layoff notices, with Treasury and HHS seeing the largest cuts, of more than 1,100 employees apiece.

The filing came in response to a lawsuit filed on Sept. 30 by two unions that represent many federal workers, the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of County, State & Municipal Employees.

The lawsuit challenges the legality of the RIFs, which at the time the suit was filed were threatened by the Trump administration. A hearing on the unions’ request for a temporary restraining order to block the layoffs is scheduled for Wednesday in San Francisco.

“These mass firings are illegal and will have devastating effects on the services millions of Americans rely on every day,” AFSCME President Lee Saunders said in a statement.

“Whether it’s food inspectors, public safety workers, or the countless other public service workers who keep America running, federal employees should not be bargaining chips in this administration’s political games,” Saunders said.

The layoffs started four days after National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett warned in a CNBC interview that could “start taking sharp measures” if the shutdown continued due to the lack of a stopgap funding deal approved by Congress.

Hassett said that “any government worker who loses their job” will have Democrats to blame for their layoff.

While many federal workers have been furloughed because of the shutdown, it is not the normal practice in shutdowns to permanently lay off government employees.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said, “Russell Vought just fired thousands of Americans with a tweet. 

“Let’s be blunt: nobody’s forcing Trump and Vought to do this,” Schumer said in a statement. “They don’t have to do it; they want to. They’re callously choosing to hurt people — the workers who protect our country, inspect our food, respond when disasters strike. This is deliberate chaos.” 

“Here’s what’s worse: Republicans would rather see thousands of Americans lose their jobs than sit down and negotiate with Democrats to reopen the government,” Schumer said.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, in a statement said, “I strongly oppose OMB Director Russ Vought’s attempt to permanently lay off federal workers who have been furloughed due to a completely unnecessary government shutdown caused by Senator Schumer.”

“Regardless of whether federal employees have been working without pay or have been furloughed, their work is incredibly important to serving the public,” Collins said. “Arbitrary layoffs result in a lack of sufficient personnel needed to conduct the mission of the agency and to deliver essential programs, and cause harm to families in Maine and throughout our country.”

Since the shutdown began last week, Vought has announced in tweets decisions by the Trump administration to freeze and cut billions of dollars in federal funding for projects in states and cities controlled by Democratic elected officials.

The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have repeatedly sought to blame Democrats for the government shutdown and any negative fallout from it.

Democratic senators have largely refused to vote for a Republican stopgap funding plan that would reopen the government, saying that any such resolution must include an agreement to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits.

Those tax credits lower the cost of Obamacare health insurance plans purchased by millions of Americans from government-run ACA marketplaces.

Dueling Republican and Democratic funding resolutions failed to pass in the Senate for the seventh time on Thursday.

The shutdown is expected to continue until at least early next week because the Senate is not due to resume business until Tuesday.

Although Republicans hold majorities in both the Senate and House, they need the votes of at least some Democratic senators to pass a funding bill because of the 60-vote threshold in the Senate required to avoid filibusters blocking legislation.