‘Substantial’ layoffs begin at federal agencies, White House says

Updated Oct. 10 at 5:03 p.m.

The Trump administration began issuing significant layoffs on Friday, the White House budget director said, following through on a threat to inflict pain on the federal workforce as a consequence of the government shutdown. 

“The RIFs have begun,” Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought said in a post on X Friday afternoon, referring to “reductions in force.” 

An OMB spokesperson confirmed the layoff notices were going out and would be “substantial.” 

The White House has said the shutdown, which entered its 10th day on Friday, an “unenviable choice” of determining where permanent layoffs should occur, though President Trump has also called the situation an “opportunity.” 

No previous shutdown has triggered such action. Typically, as in the current lapse, shutdowns lead to large numbers of employees being sent home on furlough, who are then recalled when the government reopens. Under a provision Trump signed into law in his first term, those employees are now guaranteed back pay—though the administration has also threatened to circumvent that statute. 

The White House has repeatedly said the layoffs would take place imminently. The American Federation of Government Employees has sued over the RIF threat and a federal judge in California demanded details on the administration’s layoffs plans by Friday afternoon. A hearing on AFGE’s request for a temporary restraining order to block the RIFs was scheduled for Tuesday, but the union on Friday asked for an earlier decision in light of OMB’s announcement. 

Lawmakers in both parties were quick to condemn Friday’s announcement. 

“A shutdown does not give Trump or Vought new, special powers to cause more chaos or permanently weaken more basic services for the American people,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, “and the simple fact is this administration has been recklessly firing—and rehiring—essential workers all year. This is nothing new, and no one should be intimidated by these crooks.”

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who chairs the appropriations panel, said she “strongly opposed” the layoffs. 

“Arbitrary layoffs result in a lack of sufficient personnel needed to conduct the mission of the agency and to deliver essential programs, and cause harm to families in Maine and throughout our country,” Collins said. 

Any RIF notices issued in the coming days will likely come with a 60-day notice period before employees are actually terminated. While administration officials have suggested the layoffs represent a permanent action, OMB has advised agencies they may revise their layoff plans once the government is reopened. 

The Commerce Department laid off 1% of staff at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on the first day of the shutdown. Here are details on the Friday layoffs Government Executive has learned about so far: 

• Education Department: A spokesperson confirmed Education would lay off employees on Friday, but did not specific how many. The department laid off around one-third of its workforce earlier this year. 
• Environmental Protection Agency: Layoffs are hitting at EPA, according to a spokesperson and a RIF notice reviewed by Government Executive. Congressional Democrats “brought about this outcome,” the spokesperson said, though shutdowns have no direct connections to RIFs. “The decision to conduct a RIF has been made pursuant to the president’s priority programs, projects and activities, and anticipated availability of funding,” one furlough notice from the Office of Land and Emergency Management read. “With this action, EPA is delivering organizational improvements to the personnel structure that will directly benefit the American people and better advance the agency’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment.” Tim Whitehouse, executive director at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, called the EPA layoffs “illegal and morally corrupt” and said they would inflict trauma on both the federal workforce and the American people who rely on the agency’s services.
• Health and Human Services Department: “HHS employees across multiple divisions have received reduction-in-force notices as a direct consequence of the Democrat-led government shutdown,” said Andrew Nixon, a department spokesman. HHS already laid off 10,000 employees earlier this year, a small portion of whom it subsequently asked to return. Nixon said all employees receiving RIF notices were deemed “non-essential” during the shutdown, an unofficial term meaning the workers were sent home on furlough. HHS has furloughed 41% of its 80,000 employees during the shutdown, though Nixon did not say all of those sent home would be laid off. The HHS layoffs were expected to impact around 1,000 employees, according to a senior official briefed on the matter, focusing on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Resources and Services Administration and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. 
  
  “HHS continues to close wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda,” Nixon said. 
• Homeland Security Department: DHS initiated RIFs at its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Friday. A spokesperson said the cuts would be “getting CISA back on mission” after the Biden administration led it astray. The cuts are expected to be “major,” according to a source familiar with the matter. 
• Housing and Urban Development Department: HUD is laying off employees in its Office of Community Planning and Development and the regional offices of its Office of Federal Housing and Equal Opportunity, according to an employee familiar with the matter and documents obtained by Government Executive. The totals were not yet immediately clear. 
• Treasury Department: Andrew Huddleston, communications for AFGE, said in a sworn affidavit submitted for the RIF lawsuit on Friday that his understanding was Treasury would lay off 1,300 employees on Friday. The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Two Internal Revenue Service employees confirmed layoffs were taking place at the tax agency, which has already shed more than 25,000 employees. One employee who was laid off was working Friday and exempt from shutdown furloughs. 

This is a breaking news story that will be updated.