On Friday, the Trump Administration initiated a new series of layoffs impacting federal employees, continuing President Donald Trump’s efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce as the government shutdown reached its tenth day.
White House budget director Russell Vought announced on X that “The RIFs have begun,” using the acronym for reduction-in-force notices, which inform federal staff of impending layoffs. An official from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) verified to TIME that these layoff notices were being distributed, characterizing the reductions as “substantial.” However, specific numbers or information regarding the affected agencies were not disclosed.
This move by OMB signifies a significant intensification in the dispute between Trump and Democrats concerning the shutdown, which commenced on October 1 with no apparent progress toward a resolution. The ongoing impasse has resulted in hundreds of thousands of federal workers being furloughed or continuing to work without pay. The current layoffs are anticipated to impact those employees who had already been furloughed.
For several weeks, Trump, Vought, and other administration figures had indicated that the shutdown offered a chance to further their sustained initiative to reduce the federal bureaucracy, even though Trump had previously begun layoffs this year at departments such as the State Department and the Department of Education.
Vought, a primary designer of the conservative Project 2025 plan for a potential second Trump presidency, has consistently contended that numerous federal agencies are overstaffed and ideologically at odds with the President’s objectives. These recent layoffs occur after several months of considerable workforce reduction throughout the federal government, where hundreds of thousands of staff departed via buyouts, early retirement, and deferred resignation schemes established by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Federal worker unions swiftly denounced these latest layoffs and have already initiated legal challenges to their lawfulness. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which filed a lawsuit regarding the RIF threat on September 30 in a San Francisco federal court, asserted that reductions in force are legally impermissible during a shutdown, as the Antideficiency Act prohibits agencies from expending funds or entering new financial obligations. On Friday, AFGE requested a judge to prevent OMB from directing agencies to implement the layoffs prior to a scheduled hearing on October 16.
The procedure is expected to encounter further legal obstacles. Standard RIF protocols usually mandate prior notification, allocated severance funds, and individual agency endorsement—elements that could prove challenging to fulfill during a period of funding unavailability.
Furthermore, these notices typically initiate a 60-day period before any job terminations can be finalized, potentially allowing agencies to modify their strategies if Congress reaches an agreement to restore government operations.
