Trump administration lays off federal workers

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

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

“It will be geared toward Democrats,” Trump said, reiterating his promise to focus on programs he believes are favored by Democratic officials.

Permanent job cuts, formally known as “force reductions,” are different from layoffs of government workers. Furloughed employees return to their jobs after the government shutdown ends.

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

“RIFs have begun,” Vought wrote in X.

The OMB shortly afterward confirmed his tweet and said the cuts “are substantial.”

RIF notices reached workers in the Treasury, Health and Human Services, Commerce, Education, Energy, EPA, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, and Interior departments.

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

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

The lawsuit challenges the legality of the RIFs, which at the time the lawsuit was filed were under threat from 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 layoffs are illegal and will have devastating effects on the services millions of Americans depend on every day,” AFSCME President Lee Saunders said in a statement.

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

The layoffs began four days after National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett warned in an interview with CNBC that they could “start taking drastic measures” if the shutdown continued due to the lack of an interim funding agreement approved by Congress.

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

While many federal workers have been laid off due to the shutdown, it is not normal practice during shutdowns to permanently lay off government employees.

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

“Let’s be frank: No one is forcing Trump and Vought to do this,” Schumer said in a statement. “They don’t have to; they want to. They are cruelly choosing to harm people: the workers who protect our country, inspect our food, respond when disasters strike. This is deliberate chaos.”

“This is the worst: 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, said in a statement: “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 Sen. Schumer.”

“Regardless of whether federal employees have been working without pay or have been laid off, their work is incredibly important in serving the public,” Collins said. “Arbitrary layoffs result in a lack of sufficient personnel needed to carry out the agency’s mission and execute essential programs, and cause harm to families in Maine and across 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 tried to blame Democrats for the government shutdown and any negative consequences of it.

Democratic senators have largely refused to vote in favor of a Republican stopgap funding plan that would reopen the government, saying any such resolution must include a deal to expand the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced tax credits.

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

Competing funding resolutions between Republicans and Democrats failed to pass the Senate for the seventh time on Thursday.

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

Although Republicans have a majority in both the Senate and the 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 needed to prevent filibusters from blocking legislation.