Trump plans mass federal layoffs during shutdown

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Senate bill reverses Trump's 4,000 federal layoffs, bars new firings through January

The Senate's Nov. 9-10, 2025, legislation to end the government shutdown includes provisions reversing all reduction-in-force (RIF) notices issued since Oct. 1, 2025, reinstating more than 4,000 fired federal employees with full back pay. The bill states RIF notices "shall have no force or effect" and employees "shall be returned to employment status as of Sept. 30, 2025, without interruption." It also bars federal agencies from using any funds to "initiate, carry out, implement, or otherwise notice a reduction in force" through Jan. 30, 2026. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston (California) had temporarily blocked the Trump administration's layoffs in Oct. after the American Federation of Government Employees sued, arguing the firings were arbitrary and capricious.

99% match

11 questions

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Judge enjoins shutdown-related federal layoffs

On Oct. 15, 2025, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco granted a temporary restraining order that paused shutdown-related reduction-in-force (RIF) activity after agencies began issuing roughly 4,000 layoff notices. The court later entered a preliminary injunction on Oct. 28, 2025, enjoining further RIFs tied to the shutdown. The order rests on Administrative Procedure Act grounds and found the agencies' actions likely exceeded their authority and were arbitrary and capricious. OMB Director Russell Vought had publicly said layoffs could end up "north of 10,000," but the court paused implementation while the case proceeds.

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16 questions

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OPM Schedule F rule removes civil service protections from thousands of federal employees, allowing at-will termination

The Office of Personnel Management published a final rule on Feb. 6, 2026, implementing Schedule Policy/Career — the Trump administration's revival of the controversial "Schedule F" classification from 2020. The rule takes effect March 8, 2026. It creates a new employment classification stripping civil service protections from an estimated 50,000 federal employees in "policy-influencing" roles, making them at-will workers who can be suspended, demoted, or fired without the usual due process appeals to the Merit Systems Protection Board. The rule received more than 40,000 public comments in 45 days, with 94% opposed. OPM Director Scott Kupor said the rule improves accountability and doesn't involve political litmus tests. Agencies will begin identifying which positions to reclassify over the next 30 days, after which President Trump will sign another executive order formally converting those roles. The rule also shifts whistleblower retaliation investigations from the independent Office of Special Counsel to individual agencies — a provision critics say eliminates the independence that made those protections meaningful. A coalition led by Democracy Forward announced plans to sue.

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30 questions

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State Dept. refuses to rescind 250 Foreign Service layoffs

The State Department said on Jan. 9, 2026, it will move forward with 250 Foreign Service layoffs despite a federal court order that appeared to block them. A judge issued a preliminary injunction on Dec. 17, 2025, ordering agencies to rescind reduction-in-force notices finalized during the government shutdown between Oct. 1 and Nov. 12. The Trump administration argues the court order only delays the layoffs through Jan. 30, 2026, and doesn't reverse them. Justice Department attorneys told the court that rescinding the layoffs would be "logistically a big lift" for agencies. The administration said State should not have to "go back in time" to unwind actions from Jul. when the RIF process began. The layoffs are part of broader federal workforce reductions Trump ordered in his second term.

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25 questions

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OMB orders 670,000 furloughed workers back Nov. 13 before shutdown back pay clears

On November 12, 2025, the day President Trump signed legislation ending the 43-day government shutdown — the longest in U.S. history — OMB Director Russell Vought issued memo M-26-01 directing all executive departments and agencies to reopen and to recall furloughed employees by November 13. The shutdown had started October 1 when Congress and the Trump administration failed to pass a spending bill, furloughing at least 670,000 federal workers without pay and forcing roughly 730,000 essential workers to work unpaid. The 2019 Government Employees Fair Treatment Act guarantees furloughed workers back pay at the earliest date possible after a shutdown ends. But the November 12 memo set a return-to-work date while agency payroll systems were still working to process 43 days of missing wages. The National Treasury Employees Union warned that the recall forced workers back before they could access money they were legally owed. The IRS initially planned to issue back pay on a slow schedule before union pressure forced it to move the date to November 19. State Department employees saw paychecks as early as November 13. Interior Department workers got half their back pay on November 17 and the other half on November 25. The spending deal that ended the shutdown also rescinded reduction-in-force notices that agencies had sent to employees during the shutdown.

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11 questions