Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, stated on the social media website X that the “RIFs have begun,” referring to reduction-in-force plans geared toward decreasing the scale of the federal authorities.
A spokesperson for the price range workplace stated the reductions are “substantial” however didn’t supply extra particulars.
Employees on the departments of Education, Treasury, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, in addition to the Environmental Protection Agency, had been set to obtain the notices, in response to spokespeople for the businesses and union representatives for federal employees.
The aggressive transfer by Trump’s price range workplace goes far past what often occurs in a authorities shutdown and escalates an already politically poisonous dynamic between the White House and Congress. Talks to finish the shutdown are virtually nonexistent.
Typically, federal employees are furloughed however restored to their jobs as soon as the shutdown ends, historically with again pay. Some 750,000 staff are anticipated to be furloughed through the shutdown, officers have stated.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., left, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., converse at a information convention as the federal government shutdown begins its tenth day, in Washington, on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. | Photo Credit: AP
Firings centered on Democrat-oriented areas
In feedback to reporters within the Oval Office on Friday evening, Mr. Trump stated many individuals can be shedding their jobs, and that the firings can be centered on Democrat-oriented areas, although he did not clarify precisely what that meant.
“It’ll be rather a lot, and we’ll announce the numbers over the following couple of days,” he stated. “But it’s going to be lots of people.” Mr. Trump stated that, going ahead, “We’re going to make a dedication, do we would like rather a lot? And I need to inform you, a variety of them occur to be Democrat oriented.” “These are those that the Democrats needed, that, in lots of circumstances, weren’t acceptable,” he stated of federal staff, finally including, “Many of them can be fired.” Still, some main Republicans had been extremely essential of the administration’s actions.
“I strongly oppose OMB Director Russ Vought’s try and completely lay off federal employees who’ve been furloughed as a result of a totally pointless authorities shutdown,” stated Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the chair of the highly effective Senate Appropriations Committee, who blamed the federal closure on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski referred to as the announcement “poorly timed” and “yet one more instance of this administration’s punitive actions towards the federal workforce.” For his half, Mr. Schumer stated the blame for the layoffs rested with Mr. Trump.
“Let’s be blunt: no one’s forcing Trump and Vought to do that,” Mr. Schumer stated. “They do not must do it; they wish to. They’re callously selecting to harm individuals — the employees who defend our nation, examine our meals, reply when disasters strike. This is deliberate chaos.”
Agencies hit by new layoffs
The White House had previewed its techniques shortly earlier than the federal government shutdown started on October 1, telling all federal businesses to submit their reduction-in-force plans to the price range workplace for its evaluate.
It stated reduction-in-force plans might apply to federal applications whose funding would lapse in a authorities shutdown, are in any other case not funded and are “not in keeping with the President’s priorities.” On Friday (October 10), the Education Department was among the many businesses hit by new layoffs, a division spokesperson stated. A labour union for the company’s employees stated the administration is shedding virtually all staff beneath the director stage on the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, whereas fewer than 10 staff had been being terminated on the company’s Office of Communications and Outreach.
Notices of firings have additionally taken place on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which leads federal efforts to cut back danger to the nation’s cyber and bodily infrastructure, in response to DHS, the place CISA is housed. The company has been a frequent Trump goal over its work to counter misinformation in regards to the 2020 presidential election and the COVID-19 pandemic. DHS stated the layoffs had been “a part of getting CISA again on mission.”
Federal well being employees had been additionally being fired, although an HHS spokesman didn’t say what number of or which businesses had been being hit hardest. A spokesperson for the EPA, which additionally has an unspecified variety of layoffs, blamed the Democrats for the firings and stated they’ll vote to reopen the federal government anytime.
An official for the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents federal employees and is suing the Trump administration over the firings, stated in a authorized submitting on Friday that the Treasury Department is ready to difficulty layoff notices to 1,300 staff.
The AFGE requested a federal choose to halt the firings, calling the motion an abuse of energy designed to punish employees and stress Congress.
“It is disgraceful that the Trump administration has used the federal government shutdown as an excuse to illegally hearth 1000’s of employees who present essential providers to communities throughout the nation,” AFGE President Everett Kelley stated in a press release.
Democrats have tried to name the administration’s bluff, arguing the firings might be unlawful, and had appeared bolstered by the truth that the White House had not instantly pursued the layoffs as soon as the shutdown started.
But Mr. Trump signaled earlier this week that job cuts might be coming in “4 or 5 days.” “If this retains occurring, it’s going to be substantial, and a variety of these jobs won’t ever come again,” he stated Tuesday.
tenth day of the shutdown
Meanwhile, the halls of the Capitol had been quiet on Friday, the tenth day of the shutdown, with each the House and the Senate out of Washington and either side digging in for a protracted shutdown combat. Senate Republicans have tried repeatedly to persuade Democratic holdouts to vote for a stopgap invoice to reopen the federal government, however Democrats have refused as they maintain out for a agency dedication to increase well being care advantages.
Some Republicans on Capitol Hill have urged that Mr. Vought’s threats of mass layoffs have been unhelpful to bipartisan talks.
And the highest Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, stated in a press release that the “shutdown doesn’t give Trump or Vought new, particular powers” to put off employees.
“This is nothing new, and nobody ought to be intimidated by these crooks,” she added.
Still, there was no signal that the highest Democratic and Republican Senate leaders had been even speaking a couple of option to clear up the deadlock. Instead, Senate Majority Leader John Thune continued to attempt to peel away centrist Democrats who could also be keen to cross celebration traces.
“It’s time for them to get a spine,” Mr. Thune, a South Dakota Republican, stated on Friday.
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