See where Interior is planning to lay off 2,000 employees

The Interior Department on Monday revealed it was planning more than 2,000 layoffs that are now paused under a court order, with the scheduled cuts spread throughout its bureaus and offices. 

The department shared the details of its plans after a federal judge ordered the disclosure as part of her temporary freeze on many reductions in force during the government shutdown. The judge, San Francisco-based Susan Illston, has said the Trump administration is acting illegally in carrying out the cuts and demanded additional information on which agencies had planned to move forward with layoffs. 

Nearly three-dozen agencies impacted by Illston’s order have vowed to comply with it, though only Interior has revealed that it was slated to move forward with RIFs imminently. The administration laid off around 4,000 people on Oct. 10 across seven agencies. The cuts, which followed through on a threat from President Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought to inflict pain on the federal workforce as a consequence of the government shutdown, are now blocked from taking effect. Both Trump and Vought said more layoffs were coming. 

Government Executive reported last month that planning was well underway at Interior for widespread RIFs impacting thousands of workers, and layoff notices were scheduled for mid-October. Two sources briefed on the plans subsequently confirmed that Oct. 20 was the scheduled deployment date for the layoffs, though that information predated the restraining order. Interior confirmed in its court filing Friday that its layoff plans had “nothing to do with” the shutdown.

The Interior details revealed on Monday do not shed light on the full impact of the department’s pending RIFs. After Illston last week expanded the scope of her temporary restraining order, it now extends to employees in the American Federation of Government Employees; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the National Federation of Federal Employees; the National Association of Government Employees; and the Service Employees International Union. 

The National Treasury Employees union was not added to the case but represents a significant number of employees in the National Park Service, for example, who could be vulnerable to cuts under the existing restraining order. Management employees or others not part of a bargaining unit could also still face layoffs while the TRO is in place.

Here is a summary of all the Interior offices that were planning to issue layoff notices that are now, temporarily, blocked by the restraining order. 

• Office of the Secretary: The secretary’s office would face the biggest brunt of the layoffs covered by the restraining order, with 770 positions being eliminated. That marks about 9% of that workforce. Earlier this year, Interior consolidated many of its back-end support functions, such as IT, contracting, finance and human resources, away from individual bureaus and into the centralized Office of the Secretary. IT, communications and finance offices are all set to lose hundreds of employees. The Interior Business Center, which provides payroll and other back-end support services to several agencies throughout government, would also shed hundreds of staff. 
• Bureau of Land Management: BLM is planning to lay off 474 covered employees. That represents about 5% of the agency’s workforce. The cuts are slated to hit heavily in BLM’s state offices in Oregon, Utah, California, Idaho, Arizona and Colorado. The bureau’s National Operations Center in Denver, which provides operational and technical support to its employees and stakeholders, is also set to see dozens of layoffs. 
• U.S. Geological Survey: USGS is set to send RIF notices to 335 employees in TRO-covered unions, or about 5% of its workforce. The Ecosystems Mission Area, which President Trump proposed eliminating in his fiscal 2026 budget, is slated to absorb dozens of cuts. The Great Lakes Science Center, Fort Collins Science Center, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, which collectively provide scientific information on local ecosystems, endangered species and resources, would all face significant cuts. 
• National Park Service: NPS is planning to eliminate 272 covered positions, or just 2% of its overall workforce. The Southeast, Northeast and Pacific West regional offices would each slash dozens of staff. The agency’s Denver Service Center, which NPS describes as its “centralized planning, design and construction project,” would lose nearly 20% of its employees. 
• Fish and Wildlife Service: FWS is looking to lay off 143 covered employees, or about 2% of its overall workforce. Its Migratory Birds, Conservation Investment and Fish and Aquatic Conservation offices would see the most significant cuts. 
• Bureau of Reclamation: BOR is planning to shed 30 covered employees. Those cuts are set to occur in the Pacific Northwest, at the Hoover Dam and scattered across other locations. 
• Bureau of Ocean Energy Management: BOEM is set to lay off 12 covered employees who manage outer continental shelf projects in the Gulf of America Region. 
• Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement: BSEE is planning to send seven RIF notices to covered employees, also in the Gulf of America Region. 
• Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement: OSMRE is slated to cut seven positions in its Office of Planning, Budget and Analysis.