Summary
- Trump administration started layoffs for federal workers.
- Layoffs target agencies viewed as Democrat-favored.
- Office of Management and Budget confirmed layoffs are “substantial.”
Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, revealed the long-awaited action in a post on X, stating that "the RIFs" (reductions in force or mass firings) had "begun."
In a memo sent to agency heads last month, right-wing activist Vought, who was a key member of the Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025" plan to weaponize the federal government against Democrats and concentrate power in Republican political appointees at the expense of nonpartisan civil servants, hinted at the administration's plan to use a government shutdown as a pretext to fire more federal employees in large numbers.
According to the previous memo, agencies should think about cutting staff in programs that are "not consistent with the President's priorities" and lack an additional funding source.
It's unclear which agencies or how many workers have been affected by Vought's remark.
Non-emergency workers are usually furloughed, which means they are not paid during the closure and are told not to report for duty. There is no justification for firings in the event of a shutdown. When shutdowns are over, furloughed workers usually return to work, albeit with back pay.
However, President Donald Trump announced last week that his administration intended to target civil staff as a means of penalizing Democrats in Congress by taking advantage of the government funding lapse that started on October 1.
He stated earlier this week that "very popular Democrat programs" would be the focus of layoffs.
“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people and cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,”
Trump said last Tuesday during a media availability in the Oval Office.
“They’re taking a risk by having a shutdown.”
Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, slammed the administration’s move in a statement calling it “disgraceful” that the White House ‘has used the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally fire thousands of workers who provide critical services to communities across the country.”
“These workers show up every day to serve the American people, and for the past nine months have been met with nothing but cruelty and viciousness from President Trump. Every single American citizen should be outraged,”
Kelley said. He added that Congress should “do their jobs and negotiate an end to this shutdown immediately.”
Virginia congressman Don Beyer, a Democrat whose district includes one of the largest percentages of federal employees in the country, called the administration’s decision “cruel, illegal, and yet another attack on our economy.”
What legal challenges unions have filed against the RIFs?
The lawsuit brought by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) alleges that ordering layoffs during a funding lapse violates the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits spending money or obligating an entity to spend money that Congress did not appropriate. Furloughs during a funding lapse generally provide for back pay, but they do not authorize agencies to cut positions permanently the way an RIF does.
The unions argue that a lapse in appropriations does not alter the statutory authority of agencies to carry out their authority in a situation of lapse, or permit them to lay employees off permanently.
The lawsuits also allege that the administration's abrupt switch to mass layoffs is arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion in violation of the APA.