The White House announced this on Fridaymoving forwardIts threats are being exploited amid a government shutdown, with layoffs of federal workers.
Several agencies have confirmed that their employees have received notices regarding reduction in force or RIF. Details about the total number of employees affected are still unclear, although the number is expected to be in the thousands.
Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought announced the layoffs would begin Friday, a day after the Senate failed to pass rival GOP and Democratic bills to end the shutdown.
Employee unions have vowed to challenge the firings in court, and so have Democrats and even some Republicans.criticizedThe move turns federal employees into political pawns and jeopardizes vital government services.
Here are the agencies Hill knows of that are affected.
Department of Health and Human Services
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in a statement to The Hill that employees “in multiple divisions” had received notices about reductions in force “as a direct result of the Democrat-led shutdown.”
“All HHS employees who received notices of reduction in force were designated non-essential by their respective divisions,” the department said. “HHS continues to close wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that run contrary to the Trump Administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.”
HHS was one of the agencies hardest hit by layoffs at the beginning of the year due to Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts to reduce the size of government.
It’s unclear how many employees are being affected by the shutdown layoffs.
Department of Homeland Security
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that employees working for the giant agency will be part of the layoffs.
In particular, many employees working at the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) were set to be laid off.
“CISA will have RIFs. During the previous administration, CISA focused on censorship, branding, and election campaigning,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement. “This is part of getting CISA back on mission.”
The Trump administration haslong term targetCISA came after its former leader Christopher Krebs refuted President Trump’s claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Trump fired Krebs in November 2020, and the administration revoked Krebs’s security clearance earlier this year.
Environmental Protection Agency
Employees of the EPA’s Resource Conservation and Sustainability Division received an email indicating that the agency would be making reductions in force.
Asked about the broad layoffs, an EPA spokesperson told The Hill via email, “It is unfortunate that Democrats chose to shut down the government and came to this conclusion. If they want to reopen the government, they can choose to do so at any time.”
Contingency plans posted online before the shutdown showed that about 89 percent of the EPA’s workforce was scheduled to be discharged During shutdown.
epa Confirmed It said in June that it had lost more than 700 employees since January, although those employees may have left the agency for a variety of reasons.
education department
A spokesperson for the Department of Education confirmed to The Hill that its staff “will be affected by the RIF.” But the spokesperson did not say how many.
The Education Department has already been targeted by the Trump administration for mass layoffs. President Trump signed an executive order earlier this year to close the department, and nearly half of the agency’s staff was laid off in the move.court challenges,
Department of Housing and Urban Development
An administration official confirmed that HUD employees would also be affected by the force reductions, though he did not say how many employees or which specific offices.
Contributed by Rachel Frazin
