White House: Shutdown layoffs are just days away

Federal agencies will begin issuing mass layoffs in the coming days, White House officials said on Wednesday, suggesting the forthcoming cuts would be a direct result of the current government shutdown. 

The Trump administration already has a plan in place to carry out the reductions in force, Vice President J.D. Vance and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, though they stressed final decisions on specific personnel have not yet been made. The layoffs would mark an extraordinary escalation in the management of shutdowns, which have never previously led to permanent staffing reductions. 

“Two days, imminent, very soon,” Leavitt said in describing the timing of the RIFs. She added President Trump has directed his entire cabinet to develop layoff plans and the Office of Management and Budget is working with agencies “across the board to identify where cuts can be made.”

Vance added the layoffs would “have to” take place if the shutdown continues for a couple days or longer. He suggested the cuts were necessary to ensure essential services can continue while agencies operate without annual appropriations, though such an approach has never been pursued in previous shutdowns. 

“We are going to have to lay some people off if the shutdown continues,” Vance said. “We don’t like that. We don’t want to do it.”

Vance hedged slightly, saying the administration has not made any final decisions regarding particular workers and “might have to take extraordinary steps” the longer the funding lapse goes on. 

Leavitt suggested OMB is looking over the receipts and budget of the entire government and making decisions about limiting costs, adding that “layoffs are very likely to be a part of it.” She noted that OMB Director Russ Vought briefed House Republicans on the layoff plans Wednesday afternoon. Leavitt said she did not have any figures to share in terms of layoff impacts. 

Despite the threats, Leavitt also expressed some sympathy for the federal workforce. She noted they are “real Americans who have families at home” and their working without pay is “unfair.”

So far, agencies have carried out their shutdown procedures following the standard process. All workers either Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning received notices informing them whether they would be working through the shutdown or placed in an unpaid furlough status. All federal workers—both those working due to the nature of the funding of their positions or the necessity of their work to protect life and property, as well as those furloughed—are guaranteed back pay once the government reopens. 

Agencies furloughed around 550,000 employees in total at the outset of the shutdown, a number that will climb as the shutdown drags on and leftover funds expire. Those sent home told Government Executive their agencies followed the standard process of requiring them to check in this morning for “orderly shutdown procedures,” including setting out-of-office messages and signing paperwork acknowledging their statuses. 

The notices themselves used boilerplate language and were free from the partisan rhetoric the Trump administration deployed in both public-facing and internal messaging in recent days. Agency websites throughout government were rife with notices blaming Democrats for the shutdown. Even messages to federal contractors alerting them of their stop work orders blamed “Democrats’ insane policy demands” for the pause, according to one such Interior Department note obtained by Government Executive. 

While agencies largely proceeded with standard shutdown implementation, at least one agency has already implemented a RIF. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office laid off 1% of its workforce on Wednesday, according to an email obtained by Government Executive and an employee familiar with the matter, amounting to about 140 individuals.

“Know that the decisions behind the changes announced were made after full and careful deliberation and the actions were taken with the utmost consideration for our workforce, stakeholders, and to be in full alignment with both the agency's unique mission and the dynamic future that lies ahead,” John Squires, USPTO’s director, said in a message to staff. 

Which agencies will next pursue layoffs is not yet clear, though Vance and Leavitt suggested they would hit virtually every agency. Government Executive reported last week that the Interior Department was taking steps to implement significant RIFs later this month. 

The American Federation of Government Employees and Democracy Forward has filed a lawsuit against the administration's plans, suggesting Trump and OMB Director Russ Vought had overstepped their legal authorities in ordering the RIFs. 

Any RIF notices issued in the coming days will likely come with a 60-day notice period before employees are actually terminated. While administration officials have suggested the layoffs represent a permanent action, OMB has advised agencies they may revise their layoff plans once the government is reopened. 

Democrats in recent days have said any layoffs that result from the shutdown were bound to occur anyway. Lawmakers from states with large populations of federal workers said they are not yet feeling the pressure from their constituents to end the shutdown, as those civil servants were already under assault without the shutdown. All but three Democrats on Wednesday again rejected a House-backed, Republican-supported continuing resolution that would keep agencies funded through Nov. 21. 

“Virtually every federal worker I've talked to has said they feel like they've been under threats of RIFs and a slow-moving shutdown since the beginning of the administration,” said Mark Warner, D-Va. “Whether that’s the same they feel in three weeks, I don’t know.” 

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., noted that due to the timing of pay periods and the distribution of paychecks, federal workers will begin to see part of their pay withheld in mid-October. Paychecks due at the end of the month would be the first to be withheld entirely, but Kaine predicted the shutdown would end before that point. He added that he would not sign onto any deal unless it came with a commitment from the White House that Trump would not take “unilateral actions” to fire federal workers or rescind appropriations throughout the duration of the agreement.

In the meantime, OMB’s Vought is already withholding federal funds on a targeted basis. He announced on Wednesday that OMB placed $18 billion for infrastructure projects in New York City on hold, a move Democrats quickly decried. The Government Accountability Office has determined the Trump administration has illegally impounded funds in seven instances. 

“That is exactly what our founding fathers worried about,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said. “That is exactly why they didn't give the president the power to decide unilaterally where funding goes. And so I think we're just seeing more and more evidence of how our democracy is being undermined every day that the president continues to act without any checks.”

Vought also announced he would “cancel” $8 billion in Energy Department funding to more than a dozen Democratically controlled states.