Protesters gather outside the U.S. Office of Personnel Management headquarters at the Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building in Washington, DC on February 5, 2025 (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced Friday that it has begun mass layoffs of federal workers, a step not taken during previous government shutdowns that could significantly alter the size and scope of government.
White House budget director Russ Vought posted on social media at midday that “reductions in force,” the technical term for layoffs, had begun.
“The RIFs have begun,” Vought wrote.
Vought did not share further details on social media and a budget office spokesman said only that the layoffs would be “significant” after the state’s newsroom requested information about how many federal employees and which departments would be affected.
Spokespeople for the departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and Treasury said some of their employees will be affected by layoffs, including at DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
“There will be RIFs at CISA. During the last administration, CISA focused on censorship, branding and electioneering,” a DHS spokesperson said. “This is part of getting CISA back on the mission.”
Andrew Nixon, communications director at HHS, said: “Employees in multiple departments have received notices of staffing reductions as a direct result of the Democratic-led government shutdown.”
“HHS became a bloated bureaucracy under the Biden administration, which increased its budget by 38% and its workforce by 17%,” Nixon wrote. “All HHS employees who received notices of workforce reductions have been designated as nonessential by their respective departments. HHS continues to close wasteful and duplicative enterprises, including those that conflict with the Trump Administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.”
Spokespeople for the education and finance ministries did not provide any further information.
The government shutdown began Oct. 1 after Congress failed to pass a short-term spending bill and is expected to last until at least next week, with the Senate not scheduled to meet until Tuesday.
Unions react
Unions representing federal workers said they plan to let the judiciary decide whether the firings are legal.
American Federation of Government Employees national president Everett Kelley wrote in a statement that it is “a disgrace that the Trump administration has used the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally lay off thousands of workers who provide essential services to communities across the country.”
“In AFGE’s 93 years of existence under multiple presidential administrations – including Trump’s first term – no president has ever decided to lay off thousands of furloughed workers during a government shutdown,” Kelley wrote. “AFGE is currently challenging President Trump’s illegal, unprecedented abuse of power and we will not stop fighting until all force reduction announcements are rescinded.”
AFGE represents approximately 820,000 federal and D.C. government employees.
The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, better known as the AFL-CIO, posted on social media that “America’s unions will see you in court.”
Several unions – including AFGE; AFL-CIO; and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees – filed a lawsuit In slow September, in the Northern District of California, she challenged the legality of any layoffs during a shutdown and later asked the judge for a preliminary injunction.
Judge Susan Illston gave the Trump administration until the end of Friday to provide details of planned or ongoing reductions in violence, “including the earliest date on which these RIF notices will be released.”
A Updated summary The unions said they had information from “credible sources” that about 1,300 Treasury Department employees would be laid off, but had no information about dozens of other departments and agencies.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, released a statement opposing “Vought’s attempt to permanently lay off federal employees who were furloughed due to a completely unnecessary government shutdown by Senator Schumer.”
“Regardless of whether federal employees have been working without pay or have been furloughed, their work is incredibly important in serving the public,” Collins wrote. “Arbitrary layoffs result in insufficient staff to fulfill the agency’s mission and carry out essential programs and harm families in Maine and across the country.”
There is a risk of layoffs, funding cuts and loss of back wages
President Donald Trump has signaled in recent weeks that he would take action if Democrats did not assist Republicans advance the emergency funding bill in the Senate.
“I can tell you in four or five days if this continues,” Trump said Tuesday. “If this continues it will be significant and many of these jobs will never come back.”
Trump said Thursday that he would cut funding approved by Congress for programs he believes will be supported by Democrats or benefit them generally, but he gave no further details during a Cabinet meeting.
Trump did it too floated the idea that he will not provide back pay to furloughed federal workers, although he has not made any concrete decisions about whether he might seek to reinterpret a 2019 law that guarantees back pay to all federal workers after a shutdown ends.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated before the shutdown began that some 750,000 federal employees would be furloughed. Others continued to work, but without pay.
Thune blames “left-wing extremist activist base” for the closure
Vought’s announcement came just as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) concluded a joint news conference on Capitol Hill in which they called on Democrats to vote to reopen the government.
“We have a majority of US senators – 55 out of 100 senators vote to open the government,” Thune said. “We need five bold, courageous Democrats with backbone who are willing to take on their far-left activist base and join us to pass this.”
Thune largely rejected the idea of some Republican lawmakers that the chamber should eliminate the 60-vote threshold for passing major legislation that has so far prevented final passage of the House-passed stopgap bill.
“There are people out there who think this is how we should do things here, with a simple majority,” Thune said. “But I can tell you that the filibuster has been a bulwark against a lot of bad things happening to the country over the years.”
Thune added that the legislative filibuster, which is different from the talking filibuster most people are familiar with, is necessary to protect the rights of the minority political party and give it a voice in governing.
Johnson votes again on military pay
Johnson, R-La., insisted during an earlier news conference that he would not bring the House back into session to vote on a bill to ensure timely pay for military members during the shutdown. He has repeatedly said the best way to avoid slow paychecks for federal workers is for Democrats to advance the stopgap bill passed by the House.
The stalemate over government funding revolves largely around whether congressional leaders can find a bipartisan compromise and pass legislation to extend increased tax credits for people who buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace, which are set to expire at the end of the year.
Democrats argue that lawmakers need to negotiate a deal now before open enrollment begins Nov. 1. Republican leaders say they are ready to talk once the government reopens, but they have made no commitments and have been tight-lipped about what they would consider.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said during a morning news conference before the layoffs were announced that Republicans would have to compromise on health care.
“What we have told our Republican colleagues is that we must decisively address the health crisis they created — that means legislatively and that means now,” Jeffries said.
Energy projects canceled in 21 states
Trump’s move to block funding for federal projects has drawn objections from Democrats.
Thirty-seven Democrats sent a letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Thursday, accusing the government of “illegally canceling $8 billion in federal investment in 223 energy projects.”
“For the 21 states with affected projects, your cancellations mean the loss of thousands of jobs for Americans, many of whom had every reason to be confident in the stability of their jobs before these cancellations, and all of whom will face uncertain labor markets in our increasingly slowing economy,” they wrote.
The letter was written by Democratic Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Lisa Blunt Rochester and Chris Coons of Delaware, Cory Booker and Andy Kim of New Jersey, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray Washington, Catherine Cortez Masto and signed Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin of Illinois, Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of Arizona, Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer of New York, Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz from Hawaii, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith from Minnesota, Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden from Oregon, Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff from California, Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch from Vermont and Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Iceland.
Ariana Figueroa contributed to this report.
