Lawmakers decry shutdown layoffs and the Trump administration’s lack of communication about them

Democrats on the House Education and Workforce Committee expressed opposition Monday not just to layoffs that have occurred since the start of the government shutdown but also the Trump administration’s apparent lack of transparency about which federal employees are being laid off. 

“While relevant agencies have confirmed that their staff were impacted, government officials have provided little detail to Congress or the general public, leaving us to rely mostly on media reports and social media posts regarding the dismissal of staff from various agencies,” the lawmakers wrote in a Monday letter urging Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to reverse recent RIFs at the departments of Education and Health and Human Services. 

A federal judge has temporarily blocked many of the shutdown layoffs. 

The House members criticized HHS for informing the committee four days after undertaking layoffs, the bulk of which were at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Officials rescinded hundreds of those RIF notices, however, that they said were sent in error. 

Due to this latest RIF and past ones, the congressional Democrats wrote that it’s unclear whether there are any remaining staff at HHS’ Office of Community Services to administer the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program or the Community Services Block Grant. 

“Instead of trying to prevent service disruptions for Americans living in poverty during the government shutdown, this administration appears to be taking the opportunity to achieve its own policy objectives through destruction of these two federal programs by targeting the personnel who administer them, a clear subversion of the law,” they wrote. 

HHS, on the other hand, blamed congressional Democrats for program interruptions. 

“The Democrat-led shutdown is preventing states from receiving new funds under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, discretionary child care funds, [LIHEAP] or [CSBG],” a spokesperson said in a statement to Government Executive. “Once the government reopens, [the Administration for Children and Families] will work swiftly to administer annual awards.”

The lawmakers on Monday also condemned the recent layoffs of 465 employees at the Education Department, in particular at its Office for Civil Rights. They cited a media report that the number of OCR’s regional offices had already decreased from 12 to five due to past RIFs. 

“And now, some of those remaining staff were cut further,” the Democrats wrote. “This makes it impossible for a resolution of outstanding claims of discrimination and is contributing to the growing backlog of cases at OCR.”

Before October’s layoffs, Education’s workforce had already been halved under the second Trump administration.

An automatic reply from the Education Department’s press mailbox said that staffers have been furloughed due to the shutdown and will respond when funding resumes. Because the message blames the shutdown on “Democrat senators,” it may violate the Hatch Act, which restricts the political activities of civil servants.