Senior government officials privately warn against firings during shutdown

Senior federal officials have quietly counseled several agencies against firing employees while the government is shut down — as President Donald Trump has suggested he will — warning that the strategy may violate appropriations law, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations.

The officials cautioned that firings — known as RIFs, or reductions in force — could be vulnerable to legal challenges under statutes labor unions cited this week in a lawsuit seeking to block threatened mass layoffs. For example, the Antideficiency Act prohibits the federal government from obligating or expending any money not appropriated by Congress. It also forbids incurring new expenses during a shutdown, when funding has lapsed; some federal government officials have concluded that the prohibition could extend to the kind of severance payments that accompany reductions in force.

Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, whose office oversees apportionment law and has led the administration’s preparation for terminations, have repeatedly said mass dismissals would come during a government shutdown. Plans for such firings have been developed at several agencies, according to two federal officials familiar with the matter who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail internal conversations. Those plans, which have yet to take effect, outline firings for fewer than 16,000 people, a senior White House official said, a smaller RIF than what the White House had previously projected.

Asked about the legal concerns, Rachel Cauley, the White House OMB communications director, said in a written statement that “issuing RIFs is an excepted activity to fulfill the President’s constitutional authority to supervise and control the Executive Branch, similar to conducting foreign policy.”

The warnings from top officials are at odds with the confident rhetoric that has emerged from the White House in recent days as administration officials have sought to use the stalemate with Democratic leaders to their advantage. Leaders of both parties are working to blame their political opponents for any fallout, as the federal government remained shut down Thursday with no votes planned.

Vought’s expansive view of executive power has brought him into conflict with both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, who have occasionally pushed back on his broad moves to freeze or cancel funding Congress directed. But many Republicans in Congress are leaning into threats of federal job cuts, hoping for leverage.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota), an ally of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota), told reporters that Friday’s vote is the last chance Democrats have to avert the layoffs Vought has been threatening.

Vought this week said he was freezing $18 billion in infrastructure funds to New York City — interpreted as a shot at Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) — as well as canceling another $8 billion in green energy spending that only affects states that voted for the Democratic nominee in 2024. Democrats described the move as blatant political retaliation that would raise energy costs.

The shutdown has furloughed about 750,000 federal workers and completely shuttered several agencies, including the Education, Commerce, Labor and State departments. National parks will largely remain open, though visitor centers, parking lots and museums will be closed. Programs that are not funded by annual appropriations laws such as Social Security and the U.S. Postal Service will continue, as will any work necessary to national security and defense.

Threatened layoffs compound a difficult year for federal workers, who have seen hundreds of thousands of their colleagues depart through firings, retirement programs and a deferred resignation offer the administration developed. The last initiative led to more than 150,000 people leaving federal service, the Washington Post reported. This week, as the government slammed to a halt, federal workers were navigating missed paychecks and unclear instructions about where and how to keep working.

“It’s been nonstop stress since January,” one Department of Homeland Security employee said. “This is just another in a long line of things.”

Trump indicated Tuesday that he would inflict pain on programs and workers that Democrats prioritize as a result of the shutdown. Days later, he tempered his threats by saying that he was considering whether the cuts would be temporary or permanent.

Vought told House Republicans on a private call that federal layoffs will begin within a “few days,” the Post reported. The senior White House official on Thursday declined to specify timing of the firings and played down the importance of Thursday’s meeting with the president, saying the two meet regularly.

Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday described the firings as an unfortunate necessity.

“We are going to have to lay some people off if the shutdown continues,” he told reporters. “We don’t like that. We don’t necessarily want to do it, but we’re going to do what we have to do to keep the American people’s essential services continuing to run.”

Vance did not elaborate on how laying off federal workers would help preserve federal services. There is no legal requirement that the government fire employees during a shutdown, and such action has never been taken as a result of a shutdown.

Federal employment lawyers said the dismissals would almost certainly be illegal, violating rules that guide the process of federal layoffs. Regulations governing reductions in force say that agencies can dismiss employees for one of several reasons, including a lack of work, a reorganization or a shortage of funds.

The federal government remained shut down Thursday amid an ongoing, bitter partisan battle over funding laws. Senate Democrats say they will not vote to reopen the government unless Republicans agree to extend health care subsidies slated to expire this year, but Republicans say they will not negotiate on policy issues until the government is funded again.

Regulations say that employees must be given 60 days of advance notice before being laid off. What if the shutdown ends up lasting for 12 days, D’Agostino asked, “Or 12 hours? Three hours? I just can’t see how they tomorrow spit out notices saying you’re fired because of no funding, and then on Friday, we have funding again.”

Unions moved to block any mass layoffs even before the administration acted.

Several federal unions sued the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management on Tuesday over threats of mass firings, urging a federal court to block any such plans. The unions argued that agencies have no statutory authority to implement RIFs during a shutdown and have not provided proper justification, echoing the concerns raised by some administration officials.

Kevin Owen, another federal employment lawyer, said the unions have a strong case — but he is far from confident the courts would eventually intervene.

Nonetheless, Owen predicted the Trump administration would end up reversing most RIF actions it tries to undertake during the shutdown. Over the past several months, Owen noted, he has represented many federal workers dismissed by Trump whose firings have since been rescinded.