President Donald Trump’s administration has announced it has begun laying off federal employees, despite questions about his legal authority, as the government shutdown drags on.
Russell Vought, director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, said in a brief statement Friday that the government is moving forward with a “Reduction of Workforce” plan, or RIF, to reduce the workforce.
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“RIF has begun,” Vought wrote in a social media post.
Politico, citing anonymous sources within the administration, reported that the affected departments include the Interior, Homeland Security, Treasury, Environmental Protection Agency, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Spokespeople from several ministries, including the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health, subsequently confirmed that redundancy notices had been sent to employees. In its notice, HHS referred to a “Democrat-led government shutdown,” reflecting the administration’s partisan framework.
“All HHS employees who have received notice of reduction in force have been designated as non-essential by their respective departments. HHS continues to close wasteful and redundant organizations, including those that run counter to the Trump Administration’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ policy,” the department’s statement added.
Friday marked the 10th day of the shutdown, but there is no end in sight. Earlier in the day, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced he intended to keep the chamber closed until the Senate acted on a continuing budget resolution that House Republicans had already passed.
The Senate has rejected House resolutions seven times since the government shutdown began.
“As soon as Senate Democrats turn the lights back on, we’re going to be back here and back in Congress. That’s the fact. That’s where we are,” Johnson told reporters.
Democrats, meanwhile, argue that Republicans are refusing to negotiate on health care priorities, including extending subsidies under the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire at the end of the year.
Trump, a Republican, has vowed to use the government shutdown to make cuts to programs aligned with Democrats.
Since the government shutdown began on October 1, Vought has already announced nearly $18 billion in cuts to infrastructure projects in New York City, $2 billion in cuts to Chicago’s transit system, and $8 billion in climate change-related cuts that will affect 16 primarily Democratic states.
“We’re just cutting Democratic policies, I hate to say it, but we’re also cutting Democratic policies,” the president said at a Cabinet meeting earlier this week. “We’re going to cut some of the very popular Democratic programming that, frankly, is not popular with Republicans.”
Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, have accused the Trump administration of using the government shutdown to continue purges of government agencies and cuts to services, despite contested legal authority. During a government shutdown, employees are typically furloughed but not fired.
On Friday, a federal court in San Francisco held a hearing to consider claims from labor unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).
The unions argue that firing employees during the shutdown constitutes an “unlawful abuse of power.”
AFGE President Everett Kelly claimed in a statement that no other president has ever attempted to fire furloughed government employees during a government shutdown.
“It is shameful that the Trump administration is using the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally lay off thousands of workers who provide critical services to communities across the country,” Kelly said, urging Congress to break the impasse.
“These workers show up every day to serve the American people, and over the past nine months they have received nothing but brutality and vicious behavior from President Trump. Every American should be outraged.”
But President Trump has long sought to cut what he calls “waste” and “bloat” in the federal government. He is also advancing a vision to expand the powers of the president.
So far, the Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to proceed with layoffs while courts consider the legality of such measures.
