The Trump administration issues layoff notices to more than 4,000 workers during the government shutdown

The Trump administration has begun laying off thousands of federal employees in an attempt to pressure Democrats amid the crisis Ongoing government shutdown.

“Regional investment funds have begun,” Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management, announced in a post on X on Friday morning, referring to an acronym for “reductions in effect.”

A spokesman for his office confirmed that the cuts had begun and that they were “significant.” Its size and scope came into focus later Friday, when the administration revealed that seven agencies had begun laying off more than 4,000 workers.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to use the shutdown to advance his long-standing goal of reducing the federal workforce.

By law, the federal government must give its employees at least 30 days’ notice that it is laying them off.

Following Vaught’s tweet, key departments such as the Treasury Department and Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed they had issued notices to employees, and the Department of Homeland Security, where many of its employees are considered essential, said it would lay off workers at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

But precise details were scarce.

Two major unions, the American Federation of Government Employees and the AFL-CIO, have filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of Vought’s stated plans to implement layoffs during the shutdown.

On Friday, no sooner had he said the process had begun, they asked a federal court in Northern California to temporarily block the move.

“It is shameful that the Trump administration is using the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally fire thousands of workers who provide vital services to communities across the country,” said Everett Kelly, president of AFGE.

In their opposition to the temporary restraining order, lawyers for the Office of Management and Budget revealed which agencies and how many of their employees would be affected first, indicating that an estimated 4,600 employees will receive RIF notices starting Friday.

“The President, through the Office of Management and Budget, has determined that agencies must operate more efficiently and has directed them to consider steps to improve their workforce in light of persistent appropriations shortfalls,” Justice Department lawyers said in the filing.

More than a quarter of the cuts will be made at the Treasury Department, where notices have been sent to nearly 1,446 employees.

The Department of Health and Human Services notified between 1,100 and 1,200 employees, the filing said.

The Department of Education and the Department of Housing and Urban Development plan to lay off at least 400 employees each, while the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Housing and Urban Development and Homeland Security each plan cuts of between 176 to 315 employees, according to the filing.

There was no indication how many notices the agencies issued on Friday.

The filing also said that 20 to 30 people at the EPA were issued an “intent to RIF” notice on Friday, informing them they could be affected in the future. Other federal agencies may also make cuts.

Government lawyers said the labor unions failed to prove that their members would be irreparably harmed by the layoffs, which is necessary for a judge to issue the restraining order. But they said the restraining order would “irreparably harm the government.”

The temporary restraining order would prevent agencies from “determining how best to organize their workforce,” they said, noting that the government has traditionally been given the broadest latitude in “managing its internal affairs.”

Unprecedented layoffs. In previous shutdowns, furloughed employees returned to work when the government reopened, and were paid retroactively for the time they had been away.

Both furloughed workers and “essential” workers who still must perform their job duties are not paid when government funding is temporarily cut.

the Current shutdown It began 10 days ago, after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a funding measure to keep the government open.

“They stopped for ten days,” Republican Senator John Thune told reporters, referring to the White House. “At some point, they’re going to have to make some of these decisions and prioritize where they’re going to spend money when the government shuts down.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, accused Trump and Vaught of causing “deliberate chaos.”

Democrats have refused to vote for a Republican spending plan that would reopen the government, saying any resolution must preserve expiring tax breaks that reduce health insurance costs for millions of Americans and reverse Trump’s cuts to Medicaid, the health care program for seniors and low-income people.

Republicans accuse Democrats of stopping the government’s work unnecessarily, and blame them for the effects of the federal shutdown.

The shutdown means “non-essential” federal workers will be placed on unpaid leave. It currently affects about 40% of the federal workforce — about 750,000 people.

Furloughed employees are legally supposed to get back pay after the shutdown ends and return to work, but the Trump administration has He hinted that this might not happen.

Massively culling the federal workforce has been a long-term priority for Vought.

The president and his budget chief greeted the shutdown as a unique opportunity to make more firings on top of the thousands of cuts they have made since Trump returned to office in January through a mix of firings, takeovers, administrative furloughs and resignations.

The Partnership for Public Service, a bipartisan group that studies government, estimated that the federal workforce had declined by about 200,000 employees as of September 23.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas Professional Services Company, I mentioned last month The government sector announced 299,755 job cuts planned this year, including 289,363 federal employees affected by Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) and White House cost-cutting efforts. Initially it was led by billionaire Elon Musk.

Politico reported that before the shutdown, Vaught’s office had instructed federal agencies to prepare force reduction plans aimed at cutting staff or programs whose funding might lapse or “be inconsistent with the president’s priorities.”

A day after the shutdown began, Trump posted on Truth Social that he met with Vaught “to determine which of several Democratic agencies, most of which are political scams, he would recommend cutting, and whether or not those cuts would be temporary or permanent.”