HHS, Education, IRS among agencies impacted by Trump RIFs during shutdown

The Trump administration pushed forward Friday with plans to fire federal employees amid the government shutdown, directing reductions-in-force at the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, and Housing and Urban Development, among other agencies.

Prior to and during the current shutdown, the White House repeatedly threatened to lay off additional federal workers in a bid to further its efforts to shrink the size of the government. The Trump administration maintains Democrats are to blame for the shutdown, though Democrats contend that a spending bill from Republicans — who control all levers of power — wouldn’t adequately fund health care.

Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, posted on X early Friday afternoon that the “RIFs have begun,” without offering additional details. An OMB spokesperson told FedScoop the RIFs began and are “substantial.” 

In a preview of his discussions with Vought last week, President Donald Trump said in a post to his social media platform that they would target “Democrat Agencies,” calling them “a political SCAM.” 

According to a court filing from the Trump administration late Friday, at least 4,100 federal workers across eight federal agencies may have been sent RIF notices, with the bulk of the staff reductions at HHS, with 1,100 to 1,200 workers impacted, and the Department of Treasury, with 1,446 workers impacted.

The legal declaration by OMB senior advisor Stephen Billy came in a challenge by unions to the administration’s communication urging agencies to consider RIFs ahead of the shutdown. That lawsuit alleged that OMB and the Office of Personnel Management violated the federal administrative procedure law and asked the court to issue injunctive relief.

According to Billy, the figures provided were estimates of the number of workers at each agency who may have received notices Friday. More, however, could be coming.

Other agencies that are defendants in the lawsuit “are making predecisional assessments regarding offices and subdivisions that may be considered for potential RIFs based on the criteria outlined in the OMB Lapse Email,” Billy said. Though he added that he wasn’t aware of any other agencies that have made final decisions.

He also stated that any RIFs that were ongoing prior to the Oct. 1 lapse in appropriations were not represented in the estimates. 

A spokesperson for the Education Department confirmed that agency employees will be affected by the RIF but did not specify which offices will be impacted. The agency, which is already the smallest Cabinet-level department, initiated a RIF in March, cutting nearly half its employees. It is unclear how many employees will still be at the agency following this latest round of layoffs. 

HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a written statement that employees in multiple agency divisions had received RIF notices, calling it a “consequence of the Democrat-led government shutdown.” Nixon said the department “became a bloated bureaucracy” under the Biden administration and pointed to increases in the budget and the workforce. 

“All HHS employees receiving reduction-in-force notices were designated non-essential by their respective divisions. HHS continues to close wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda,” Nixon said.

Similarly, a spokesperson for HUD said the agency “is implementing a reduction in force to align our programs with the Administration’s priorities and the appropriations available to the department.” That spokesperson didn’t provide any additional details.

In an earlier court filing Friday, a leader with the American Federation of Government Employees union claimed the Trump administration directed the Treasury Department to issue 1,300 RIF notices across the agency. That filing came in the same lawsuit as OMB’s declaration.

“I have been informed that there are human resources staff, including human resources staff from the Internal Revenue Service who have been detailed to the broader Treasury Department, who are currently working on those RIF notices,” Thomas Huddleston, director of advocacy for AFGE, wrote in the filing. 

At the Internal Revenue Service, which is part of the Treasury, two employees confirmed they unexpectedly received RIF notices Friday. According to a copy of the RIF notice obtained by FedScoop, the RIF will take effect Dec. 9. 

“The Internal Revenue Service has determined it is necessary to abolish some positions in INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY to further workforce shaping efforts,” the notice stated. 

One IRS IT worker who received the notice told FedScoop: “As with the rest of this current administration, this doesn’t appear to be following regulations. That’s the part that hurts.”

The worker, who said they knew of 14 IT employees who also received RIF notices, expressed concerns about the future of the IRS’s modernization efforts amid the cuts. 

“We’re trying to prep for tax season (already) and between this, budget cuts, constant supervisory changes, and new requirements of the new tax bill passed, the IRS will fail in its ability to modernize processes, complete timely reviews of tax files, and be hand-tied [in its] ability to perform meaningful audits,” they said. 

Another RIF’d IRS worker said it is “sad that federal employees are only seen as merely pawns in this political chess game.” 

Spokespeople for the IRS and Treasury did not respond to FedScoop’s requests for comment. 

The Environmental Protection Agency did not confirm whether RIFs were initiated, but a spokesperson told FedScoop in a statement: “It’s unfortunate that Democrats have chosen to shut down the government and brought about this outcome. If they want to reopen the government, they can choose to do so at any time.” 

FedScoop also reached out to the Departments of Energy, the Interior, and Commerce, which did not respond before publication. 

Congressional Democrats from Maryland, home of more than 100,000 federal workers, railed in a joint statement Friday against the Trump administration’s move to “maliciously” attack federal employees and the “vital public services they provide to the American people.”

“Republicans have been weaponizing the Office of Management and Budget to illegally fire federal workers since day one, and now they’re using this shutdown of their own making to inflict even more trauma on the nonpartisan civil servants who have nothing to do with it,” the lawmakers wrote. Working Americans will ultimately bear the brunt of these actions.”

Matt Bracken contributed to this article. 

Updated Oct. 10 to add details about figures provided in a legal filing from OMB.