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The Trump administration is moving forward with plans Punish federal employees in agencies The move is believed to have favored Democrats with mass layoffs to force Senate Democrats to vote to end the government shutdown.
Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Watt announced long threatened move In a post on X, he wrote that “RIF” – meaning reduction in force or mass shooting – “has begun.”
OMB said in a court filing that more than 4,000 employees would be laid off, including more than 1,400 at the Treasury Department and more than 1,100 at the Department of Health and Human Services. But the Budget Office said the funding lapse is a “volatile and rapidly evolving” situation.
Watt is a right-wing activist who was the chief architect of the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” plan to weaponize the federal government against Democrats and centralize power in Republican political appointees at the expense of non-partisan civil servants.
He previewed the administration’s intention to use the government shutdown as an excuse to fire more federal employees Very In a memo sent to agency heads last month.
According to an earlier memo, agencies should consider staff reductions in programs that have no other sources of funding, and that “are not consistent with the President’s priorities.”
A White House official said Independent That the number of workers receiving notice of their impending termination could be in the “thousands”.
Typically, non-emergency workers are furloughed, meaning they are instructed not to come to work and are not paid during the shutdown. There is no reason why a shutdown would require firings. Typically, furloughed employees return to work – with pay owed – when the shutdown ends.
But last week, trump Said his administration planned to use lapse in government funding which began on October 1 to target civil servants as a way to punish Democrats in Congress.
“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible for them, like cutting large numbers of people and cutting things that they love, cutting programs that they love,” Trump said during a media availability in the Oval Office last Tuesday. “They’re taking a risk by shutting down.”
Earlier this week, he said the layoffs would target what he described as “very popular Democrat programs.” It’s not clear what this means, since federal government programs serve all Americans.
Virginia Congressman Don Beyer, a Democrat whose district includes one of the largest federal employers in the country, called the administration’s decision “cruel, illegal and yet another attack on our economy” in a statement.
He accused Trump and Wyatt of “illegally firing more workers, hurting essential services for the American people, and hurting our economy in Virginia and across the country.”
senate minority leader chuck schumer Of new york Watt also condemned the announcement, which he described as “freaking out thousands of Americans with a tweet.”
“Let’s be clear: No one is forcing Trump and Wyatt to do this. They don’t have to do this; they want to. They are ruthlessly choosing to hurt people — the workers who protect our country, inspect our food, respond when disasters strike. This is deliberate lawlessness,” Schumer said.
He said Republicans “would rather see thousands of Americans lose their jobs than sit down and negotiate with Democrats to reopen the government” and called on the GOP to “come to the table, negotiate, and reopen the government.”
He said, “Until Republicans get serious, they have this — every job lost, every family harmed, every service destroyed, it’s because of their decisions.”
Everett Kelly, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, criticized the administration’s move in a statement, calling it “outrageous” that the White House “has used the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally fire thousands of employees who provide vital services to communities across the country.”
Kelly said, “These workers come every day to serve the American people and for the last nine months they have received nothing but cruelty and wickedness from President Trump. Every single American citizen should be outraged.” He said Congress “must do its job and negotiate an immediate end to this shutdown.”
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, also attacked the administration’s plans for mass layoffs in a separate statement, calling them “illegal” and predicting they would have a “devastating impact on the services that millions of Americans rely on every day.”
“Whether it’s food inspectors, public safety workers, or the countless other public service workers who keep America running, federal employees should not have to bargain in this administration’s political games,” Saunders said.
A group of labor unions, which had filed suit to stop the mass shooting, immediately filed an application California The federal court asked for a temporary restraining order to prevent the administration from moving forward with any cuts in the force. The case is to be heard on October 16.
Rachel Dobkin contributed to this reporting.