Judge orders Trump administration to halt layoffs linked to shutdowns

A judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from laying off thousands of federal workers during the government shutdown.

This comes less than a week after the administration confirmed that several agencies had begun laying off about 4,000 workers.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston granted two unions’ request to block layoffs at more than 30 agencies.

During the hearing, Illston said she agreed with the unions that the administration was illegally using the funding gap, which began Oct. 1, to carry out its plans to downsize the federal government.

She also cited a series of public statements from President Donald Trump and White House budget chief Russell Vought that she said demonstrated explicit political motivations for the layoffs, such as Trump saying the budget cuts would target “Democratic agencies.”

A U.S. Justice Department lawyer said unions must submit their demands to a federal labor board before going to court.

The Trump administration is expected to appeal the ban order.

On Friday, large departments such as Treasury and Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed they would send notices to employees. Homeland Security, where many of its employees are considered essential, announced it would lay off staff in its cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency.

An Office of Management and Budget filing found that more than a quarter of the cuts were to be made at the Treasury Department, where notices were sent to about 1,446 employees.

HHS was warning between 1,100 and 1,200 employees, according to the filing. The department later said it planned to lay off only about half that amount.

The Department of Education and the Department of Housing and Urban Development planned to lay off at least 400 employees each, while the departments of Commerce, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, and Homeland Security each planned cuts ranging from 176 to 315 employees, according to the filing.

Vought said it plans to cut a total of more than 10,000 federal employees during the shutdown.

He told The Charlie Kirk Show podcast, which aired Wednesday before the court’s decision, that the 4,000 layoffs were “just a snapshot and I think that number is going to go up.”

Vought said the cuts would continue during the shutdown “because we believe it is important to remain offensive to the American taxpayer and the American people.”

He later added that the layoffs could end up “being somewhere north of 10,000.”

In response to comments from Vought and Trump about possible layoffs, two major unions, the American Federation of Government Employees and the AFL-CIO, had already filed suit, then asked Judge Illston on Friday for an emergency restraining order while the case progressed.

They argued that the layoffs did not constitute an essential service that could be provided in the event of a disruption in government funding.

They also say the shutdown does not justify mass layoffs because most federal workers have been furloughed without pay.

With the federal lockdown now in its third week, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday failed to pass a resolution to reopen the government – ​​the ninth time the resolution has failed.

Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress as well as the White House, blame Democrats for the impasse, saying they should agree to pass a “clean” funding resolution that would simply maintain current spending levels. With Republicans holding a slim majority in the House, they need a handful of Democratic votes to reach the 60-vote threshold and pass the resolution.

Democrats were fairly united in pushing for a resolution that would address health care costs for low-income Americans, which are soon expected to rise.