As White House promises more federal layoffs, Democrats say ‘we’ll see them in court’

The White House on Tuesday expressed its comfort with an ongoing shutdown that leads to more layoffs of federal employees, prompting Democrats to rally to say those cuts were illegal and would eventually be reversed in federal court. 

After laying off more than 4,000 employees on Friday, the Trump administration on Tuesday said it would continue instituting more reductions in force as the shutdown dragged on. Still, lawmakers insisted that federal workers were on their side and would rather risk missing paychecks or losing their jobs than go back to work under the same conditions that have been in place since January. 

The Office of Management and Budget “is making every preparation to batten down the hatches and ride out the Democrats’ intransigence,” the White House agency said on Tuesday. “Pay the troops, pay law enforcement, continue the RIFs, and wait.” 

President Trump added from the White House that he had a list of federal programs supported by Democrats that would be permanently eliminated this Friday. 

“We’re not going to let them come back,” Trump said. 

The White House has maintained that the shutdown is forcing its hand on layoffs, but there is no direct connection between the two and no law requires RIFs when funding lapses. In prior shutdowns—and the current one, in the vast majority of cases—agencies furlough portions of their workforces and bring the employees back when the government reopens. 

Democrats from Maryland and Virginia rallied with current and former federal employees across the street from OMB’s offices to denounce the cuts, while reasserting the layoffs would not deter them from their current legislative strategy. Senate Democrats have held up a stopgap funding bill over expiring subsidies for certain health care premiums and efforts by the Trump administration to walk back funding Congress has authorized. 

The lawmakers said there is no legal basis for the shutdown-oriented RIFs. A federal court in California is scheduled to hold a hearing on the matter on Wednesday after a group of unions and advocacy groups asked for an expedited ruling to block the layoffs. 

“When they tell you that the shutdown is making them fire these federal employees, do not believe it for a moment,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. “That is a big lie. It is a big fat lie. It is also illegal, and we will see them in court.” 

Rob Shriver, who led the Office of Personnel Management under President Biden and now serves at Democracy Forward, a group helping lead the lawsuit against the RIFs, said his organization was in the fight against the Trump administration’s actions for the long haul. 

“No matter what happens, we will continue to fight these illegal RIFs,” Shriver said. “We'll fight them tomorrow. We'll fight them next week. We'll fight them two months from now, two years from now, as long as it takes.” 

Lawmakers also vowed to challenge in court any effort by the Trump administration to deny back pay to furloughed federal workers, which the White House has floated despite a measure Trump signed into law in 2019 that guarantees the retroactive compensation. 

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said Democrats are going to ensure any deal to end the shutdown would make it more difficult to withhold funds authorized by Congress. The Government Accountability Office has determined the Trump administration has illegally impounded funds in seven instances. 

“We'll get the government reopened, but we've got to also make sure that when a deal is struck, it is kept,” Warner said. “Russ Vought at the OMB cannot pick and choose which federal programs to fund after Congress and the President have come together.” 

Van Hollen, who represents more than 100,000 federal workers in his state, said those constituents do not want him to vote to reopen the government without conditions. 

“What we're hearing from federal employees is that they want to be sure that when the government reopens, they're not again subjected to this terrorism being imposed by Russ Vought,” the senate said. 

Current federal employees backed the lawmakers at the event, holding signs with pictures of Vought that quoted his infamous vow to put federal workers “in trauma.” The employees cheered when lawmakers said they would continue to fight and said afterward they supported the shutdown despite the costs it could inflict on them. 

“I do hope that people get back to Congress to try to negotiate this,” Sara Hargrave, a furloughed employee at the National Institutes of Health, said of missing part of her paycheck this week. “It doesn't change my perspective on what needs to be in the spending bill that they approve. I think it's so important that we have healthcare. It's so important that we have provisions in there that help to defend democracy.” 

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., also said Democrats would not be intimidated by the administration’s threats and actions, even as Trump compared Vought to the grim reaper in a AI-generated video he posted to his Truth Social account. 

“We don’t fear the reaper,” Hoyer said, quoting the Blue Oyster Cult song that backed the video Trump posted. “We are going to keep fighting for Americans' health care and for our federal workers.”