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On October 10, local time, U.S. President Trump made good on previous threats during the government shutdown and officially launched a federal employee abolition operation. In the past, the U.S. government shutdown only resulted in temporary unpaid leave. If this layoff is realized, it will be the first large-scale permanent layoffs during the government shutdown in U.S. history.

Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), briefly announced on the social platform "X" that afternoon: "Layoffs have begun." He used the abbreviation of "RIFs", which means "staff reduction".

Searle Vought Announces Start of Layoffs X Platform

A White House source familiar with the matter confirmed the action to the Washington Post and said that "the scale of the layoffs will be considerable," but did not disclose the specific number of people affected or department details.

According to an OMB court document, the dismissal affected a wide range of key federal agencies, including the Ministry of Homeland Security (DHS), the Ministry of Health and Public Services (HHS), the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, etc., with a total number of more than 4,000 people. Among them, the key department responsible for national cybersecurity, the Ministry of Homeland Security¡¯s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was also listed, while the IRS¡¯ jobs are expected to be cut by more than 1,300.

External estimates suggest that about 300,000 federal civil servants will eventually be affected by this.The roots of this massive cuts can be traced back to a systematic government shrinkage program launched by the Trump administration earlier this year.

On February 11 this year, the White House website issued an executive order called "Implementing the President's Department of Government Efficiency's Labor Optimization Plan." The document requires federal agencies to cut what they consider non-essential positions, streamline personnel, and establish a special The "Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)" team is responsible for implementation.

In addition, the executive decree clearly established a strict "recruitment ratio" of 4 to 1, that is, every time four employees leave, the relevant agencies can subsidize one person.

In a statement released on the same day, the White House stated that the plan's goal is to "reshape the structure of the federal workforce" and aims to make government agencies "smaller and more efficient" through a combination of natural attrition and formal layoffs. Subsequently, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) jointly issued specific implementation rules, requiring each department to submit detailed layoffs and reorganization plans to prepare for this centralized layoffs.

In addition, according to the White House guidelines, affected employees will receive at least 30 days of notice before the dismissal officially comes into effect, while most will enjoy a buffer period of at least 60 days.

The Washington Post commented that the layoffs during the government shutdown were the result of years of planning by White House Budget Office Director Walter.

Syre Water (right) speaks Reuters

As one of the core designers of the ¡°cutting plan¡±, Watter designed a plan for Trump¡¯s second term to significantly curtail the federal bureaucracy, whose office had threatened to implement massive cuts that could involve hundreds of thousands of people during the government shutdown, while also informing agencies that the government might need to adjust the cuts after it resumed operations.

Before the government shutdown, Trump had told U.S. media that he might be dismissing ¡°a lot of people¡±; and after the shutdown began, U.S. Vice President Wallace and White House press secretary Caroline Levitt were also hinting that the cuts were about to advance.

While the White House said cuts were ¡°conventional during the shutdown,¡± in reality, the cuts were not directly related to the capacity to pay for the shutdown.

It is understood that during the "shutdown" of the U.S. government, federal employees are generally not fired. The usual practice is that employees who provide "essential services" continue to work without pay, while hundreds of thousands of employees in non-essential positions are forced to take unpaid leave. After the government resumes operation, most of these employees will receive replacement wages.

However, on October 8, local time, Trump said in an interview that employees who were forced to take vacation may not receive a replacement salary this time. On the 9th, he further threatened at the cabinet meeting, "We will cut some Democratic projects that are very popular but not supported by the Republican Party."

The New York Times on October 9 that attempting to dismiss federal employees during the ¡°stop¡± period could exacerbate the current fiscal impasse and bring a high cost. The report said that the Trump administration is viewing the ¡°stop¡± as a political advantage, trying to rearrange the federal budget and retaliate against political opponents.

According to a number of federal employees with knowledge of the situation, the layoffs implemented this week seem to be mainly aimed at those departments that are inconsistent with the Trump administration's policy orientation. Among the affected agencies are the Family and Community Policy Unit under the Department of Health and Human Services, and the office responsible for fair housing in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In addition, six employees revealed that a department in the Ministry of Education responsible for improving students' academic performance was also abolished.

The dismissal, however, contradicts recent internal warnings from senior government officials, who believe the move is legally questionable.The Washington Post earlier this month that several officials had privately advised agencies not to dismiss employees without funding, as this could be suspected of violating the law.

These officials warned that the Anti-Underappropriation Act prohibits the government from incurring new expenditures without funds allocated by Congress. Such operations are likely to violate the Act due to the complex process of layoffs and financial commitments such as severance compensation involved.

The U.S. Federation of Government Employees has filed a lawsuit claiming that the government has neither the right nor the ability to carry out cuts during the shutdown. The organization¡¯s national chairman, Everett Kelley, criticized in a statement that the Trump administration has ¡°illegally dismissed¡± thousands of employees who provide critical services to communities across the U.S. as a ¡°shameful¡± act.

Kelly said, ¡°Federal employees are tired of becoming the bats for politicians to pursue political and personal interests. It is time for Congress to take responsibility and negotiate immediately to end this ¡®stop¡¯.¡±

Kelly forwarded the federation's lawsuit statement X platform

Patty Murray, President Tempore of the Senate, Chairman of the Appropriations Committee and * Party member, accused Trump of "choosing to bring more pain to the American people" through this new round of layoffs.

Murray said, "No one forced Trump and Walter to hurt American workers, they just wanted to do it themselves. But this is nothing new, and no one should be scared by these swindlers."

Still, Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon argued in an interview that the layoffs were aimed at curbing the staffing growth the department saw during the Biden administration's COVID-19 pandemic response.

Nixon said: ¡°All health and public service employees who receive dismissal notifications have been identified as ¡®unnecessary people¡¯ by their respective departments. health and public service departments will continue to shut down wasteful and repetitive institutions, especially those units that conflict with the Trump administration¡¯s ¡®Get America Health Back¡¯ agenda.¡±