The Trump administration is moving ahead with more mass firings of federal employees, something it has threatened to do since the start of the government shutdown.

Reductions in force are not typical during a government shutdown. During most shutdowns, employees are either working — with or without being paid immediately — or are furloughed, meaning they are not working during the funding lapse.

All federal employees typically receive back pay as soon as a shutdown ends, but the Office of Management and Budget has circulated a memo stating that back pay is not guaranteed for furloughed feds.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought posted on X Friday that “RIFs have begun.”

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An OMB spokesperson said in a statement that “RIFs have begun and are substantial,” but did not provide any additional details.

Several agencies have confirmed that they are sending new RIF notices to employees.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the agency has sent RIF notices to some of its furloughed employees.

“HHS employees across multiple divisions have received reduction-in-force notices as a direct consequence of the Democrat-led government shutdown,” the spokesperson said.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said RIFs will target employees at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The Trump administration is investigating former CISA Director Chris Krebs, who pushed back on vote-tampering claims in the 2020 presidential election floated by first-term Trump administration officials.

“RIFs will be occurring at CISA. During the last administration CISA was focused on censorship, branding and electioneering. This is part of getting CISA back on mission,” the DHS spokesperson said.

A spokesperson from the Education Department said in a statement that its “employees will be impacted by the RIF.”

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A lawsuit led by the American Federation of Government Employees is calling on a federal judge to block the upcoming RIFs.

“These RIFS violate the Antideficiency Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, including by requiring agency employees to unlawfully work during the shutdown, unlawfully laying off employees during the shutdown, and improperly using the shutdown as the basis for the layoffs,” plaintiffs wrote in the complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to proceed with widespread layoffs this summer. But RIF plans at several agencies are still under legal review by lower courts.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that layoffs “likely in the thousands” were being planned by OMB.

Just before the shutdown, OMB told agencies to draw up plans for additional RIFs for programs that wouldn’t have alternative funding sources during a lapse in congressional appropriations, and that “are not consistent with the president’s priorities.”

Last week, President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated video on Truth Social portraying Vought as the Grim Reaper and targeting federal employees.

Democratic lawmakers quickly condemned the mass firings.

Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee Patty Murray (D-Wash) said the Trump administration is “choosing to inflict more pain on the American people.

“Once again, when President Trump and his self-described ‘grim reaper’ decide to ignore the pleas of congressional Republicans and conduct more mass firings, they are choosing to inflict more pain on the American people,” Murray said.

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Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), representing a district with one of the largest concentrations of federal workers, said a government shutdown does not require or enable mass firings of federal workers, in fact, it forbids it.”

“Directing these firings during a shutdown violates the law, and the laws they are violating are criminal statutes,” Beyer said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email jheckman@federalnewsnetwork.com, or reach out on Signal at jheckman.29

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