WASHINGTON
The White House said on Friday that it had begun substantial layoffs across the government, as President Donald Trump followed through on a threat to cut the federal workforce during the government shutdown.
Job cuts were underway at the Treasury Department, the US health agency and the departments of education, commerce, and Homeland Security’s cybersecurity division, but the total extent of the layoffs was not immediately clear.
Roughly 300,000 federal civilian workers will leave their jobs this year due to a downsizing campaign initiated earlier this year by Trump.
“The RIFs have begun,” White House budget director Russell Vought wrote on social media, referring to “reductions in force”. A spokesperson for the budget office characterised the cuts as “substantial”.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to fire federal workers during the shutdown standoff, in its 10th day on Friday, and has suggested his administration will aim primarily at “Democrat agencies”. He has ordered the freezing of at least $28 billion in infrastructure funds for New York, California and Illinois — all home to sizable populations of Democratic voters and critics of the administration.
Trump’s Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of Congress, but need at least seven Democratic votes to pass a funding bill in the Senate, where Democrats are holding out for an extension of health-insurance subsidies.
Democrats said they will not cave to Trump’s pressure tactics.
“Until Republicans get serious, they own every job lost, every family hurt, every service gutted is because of their decisions,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said.
Labour unions representing federal workers have sued to stop the layoffs, saying they would be illegal during a shutdown.
A federal judge is due to hear the case on Oct 16.
The government is required by law to give workers 60 days’ notice ahead of any layoffs, though that can be shortened to 30 days.
Employees across multiple divisions of the Department of Health and Human Services have received layoff notices, communications director Andrew Nixon said. The 78,000 workers at the sprawling agency manage major health insurance programmes, monitor disease outbreaks, fund medical research, and perform a wide range of other health-related duties.
Roughly 41 per cent of the agency’s staff have been ordered not to report to work during the shutdown, while others have been ordered to continue working without pay.
Nixon said the layoffs were targeted at those who had been furloughed, but did not provide further details.
Layoffs have also begun at the Treasury Department, according to a spokesperson.
A labour union official, Thomas Huddleston of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a court filing he had been told Treasury was preparing 1,300 layoff notices. Those layoffs could hit the tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service, which has been targeted for steep job cuts this year.
Some 46pc of the agency’s 78,000 employees were furloughed on Wednesday.
Officials also confirmed job cuts at the Education Department, which Trump has vowed to shutter completely, and the Commerce Department, which handles weather forecasting, economic data reports, and other duties.
