The bureaucratic state is way too bloated. But now they’re being shown the door.
And federal workers started getting pink slips and now all hell is breaking loose.
Federal Layoffs Advance Amid Shutdown
The White House moved forward with planned reductions in federal workforce on Friday as the government shutdown persisted, according to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought.
“The RIFs have begun,” Mr. Vought posted on X, denoting reductions in force or layoffs for federal employees.
A budget office representative described the cuts as “substantial.”
Affected areas included the departments of Education, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services.
“Employees across multiple divisions have received reduction-in-force notices as a direct consequence of the Democrat-led government shutdown,” Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon said in a statement.
“HHS under the Biden administration became a bloated bureaucracy, growing its budget by 38% and its workforce by 17%. All HHS employees receiving reduction-in-force notices were designated non-essential by their respective divisions,” he said. “HHS continues to close wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.”
The Office of Management and Budget issued guidance in late September directing agencies to pursue such reductions, with President Trump endorsing the approach.
The directive instructed agencies to target employees in programs, projects, or activities facing lapsed discretionary funding on Oct. 1 without alternatives and misaligned with the President’s priorities.
Approximately 750,000 non-essential federal workers remain furloughed during the shutdown, per Congressional Budget Office estimates.
The administration had signaled these steps repeatedly, with Mr. Trump cautioning Tuesday that prolonged shutdowns could lead to permanent job losses.
“If this keeps going on, it’ll be substantial, and a lot of those jobs will never come back,” he said.
Shutdown Standoff Enters Second Week
The partial government closure marked its tenth day Friday, with Senate Democrats blocking a House-approved continuing resolution to fund operations through Nov. 21, allowing time for broader fiscal year appropriations.
The shutdown commenced Oct. 1 at the fiscal year’s outset.
Democrats seek discussions on $1.5 trillion in extensions for enhanced Obamacare subsidies and related initiatives.
Senate Democratic Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York decried the workforce reductions.
“Russell Vought just fired thousands of Americans with a tweet,” he said in a statement. “Let’s be blunt: nobody’s forcing Trump and Vought to do this. They don’t have to do it; they want to. They’re callously choosing to hurt people — the workers who protect our country, inspect our food, respond when disasters strike. This is deliberate chaos.”
He faulted Republicans for prioritizing job losses over health care talks to end the impasse.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed earlier queries on the necessity of layoffs, absent in prior shutdowns including the 35-day episode during Mr. Trump’s first term, by emphasizing debt reduction efforts.
“We are $37 trillion in debt, and the federal government is currently shut down. There is no more money coming into the federal government’s coffers,” she said. “And as you’ve also seen since the beginning in January, this administration is focusing on waste, fraud and abuse, and so Democrats have given this administration an unenviable choice to have to take a look at the balance sheet and identify where these cuts and layoffs can be made.”
Union Response and Funding Adjustments
The American Federation of Government Employees, representing over 800,000 federal and District of Columbia workers, labeled the actions “disgraceful.”
“It is disgraceful that the Trump administration has used the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally fire thousands of workers who provide critical services to communities across the country,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement. “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.”
“Federal workers are tired of being used as pawns for the political and personal gains of the elected and unelected leaders. It’s time for Congress to do their jobs and negotiate an end to this shutdown immediately,” he said.
AFGE and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees launched a legal challenge last month against the anticipated layoffs in San Francisco federal court.
These reductions form part of broader fiscal maneuvers under shutdown constraints.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, indicated Friday that the White House would likely redirect funds to cover active-duty military paychecks due Wednesday amid the funding gap.
“I think to their credit, the White House has now for 10 days laid off doing anything in hopes that enough Senate Democrats would come to their senses and do the right thing and fund the government,” he said. “But now that … people are going to start missing paychecks, this gets real. This gets real for families, a lot of military families who live paycheck to paycheck, a lot of American families who live paycheck to paycheck, who are federal employees.”
Mr. Thune anticipated forthcoming White House choices on reallocating resources across agencies, departments, programs, and personnel.
