Topline
The Trump administration has started to lay off federal workers, making good on its threats to make permanent cuts amid the government shutdown, budget chief Russ Vought said Friday.
“The RIFs [reductions in force] have begun,” Vought wrote on X Friday, while the Office of Management and Budget told multiple outlets the layoffs would be “substantial.”
The Health and Human Services Department told STAT News the layoffs had hit the agency, though it’s unclear which other agencies would be affected.
The layoffs come as the government shutdown will extend at least until Tuesday, when the Senate is scheduled to vote next, with no sign either party is willing to negotiate on a spending plan to reopen the government.
The Trump administration warned it will punish Democrats for refusing to vote for the Republican bill that would lift the shutdown, with Trump saying Thursday “we’ll be making cuts that will be permanent, and we’re only gonna cut Democrat programs.”
The White House previously told federal agencies to prepare for mass firings by identifying programs with funding that would lapse during a shutdown, warning those “not consistent” with Trump’s policy priorities would be targeted for the layoffs.
The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union that represents 800,000 workers, said on X it sued the administration in response to Vought.
Exactly which government departments will be targeted, or how many people will ultimately lose their jobs.
The Trump administration has already sought to make mass cuts to the federal government this year in an effort to reduce what Trump and his allies have claimed is bureaucratic bloat. Some of the firings, carried out by the Department of Government Efficiency previously led by Elon Musk, have been reversed or blocked in court. Non-essential government workers were furloughed when the shutdown began Oct. 1, and federal workers began receiving partial paychecks Friday, only for the days they worked before the shutdown. The paychecks will be their last until the government reopens.
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