White House issues mass layoff orders ahead of possible government shutdown

White House: In stark contrast to the brief worker furloughs usually seen during previous shutdowns, the White House on Wednesday instructed federal departments to develop preparations for mass firings during a potential government shutdown next week.

In a letter addressed to federal agencies on Wednesday, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requested that they identify projects, programs, and activities for which discretionary funding would expire on October 1st in the event that the U.S. Congress does not enact legislation to maintain the federal government’s operations.

“Programs that did not benefit from an infusion of mandatory appropriations will bear the brunt of a shutdown,” the OMB said in the report that was made public by the White House.

White House Demands Layoff Plans as Shutdown Looms

Whether the shutdown was a high-stakes negotiation strategy to get Democrats to agree to accept the Republicans’ funding package or whether the White House was attempting to use it to further President Donald Trump’s goal to reduce the federal workforce was not immediately apparent.

Agencies were instructed to notify workers even if they would otherwise be furloughed or excepted during a budget shortfall and to submit their planned reduction-in-force plans to the OMB.

Politico first reported on the OMB document.

Trump increased the likelihood of a partial government shutdown starting next week by calling off a meeting with senior congressional Democratic leaders on Tuesday to discuss agency financing. The standoff has been attributed by both Democrats and Republicans on one another.

Trump began a push to reduce the 2.4 million federal civilian employees when he took office in January, claiming that the staff is overburdened and ineffective.
Scott Kupor, the director of the Office of Personnel Management, told Reuters in August that by the end of 2025, almost 300,000 federal civilian employees would have quit their employment.

On September 30, the final day of the federal government’s fiscal year, about 154,000 of those workers took a buyout and would no longer be employed by the United States government. In order to prevent a shutdown, Trump and Congress must also agree on government funding by that date.