In today’s news and commentary, the Trump Administration fires thousands of federal workers; AFGE files a supplemental motion to pause the Administration’s mass firings; and Democratic legislators harden their resolve during the government shutdown.

On Friday, the Trump Administration issued “Reduction in Force” (RIF) notices to at least 4,600 federal employees as part of its broader attack on the federal workforce. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russel Vought announced “the RIFs have begun” on X Friday morning, with a spokesperson for the agency later confirming the firings and stating that “more RIFs are coming.” Affected employees work for a number of federal agencies, including the Department of Education, the Department of the Treasury, and the Department of Health and Human Services. The firings are part of an effort by the Trump Administration to pressure Democratic legislators amid a nearly two-week-long government shutdown. President Trump stated that the firings will include “a lot of people… (and) a lot of them happen to be Democrat oriented.” It’s important to recognize that the mass firings are not a necessary result of the government shutdown or related in any way to ongoing worker furloughs; the shutdown does not grant the Trump Administration any new powers relating to firing federal workers.

Subsequent to the Trump Administration’s mass firings, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) filed a supplemental motion in their ongoing lawsuit against the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The motion seeks an immediate temporary restraining order “halting OMB from ordering agencies to implement RIFs.” As Mila wrote previously, AFGE initiated the lawsuit in the District Court for the Northern District of California on September 30th in response to the Administration’s initial threats of worker firings. With mass firings now in progress, the union asks the Court to halt the issuance of all RIF notices until a scheduled hearing on October 16th. AFGE argues that the notices violate the Antideficiency Act and the Administrative Procedure Act by “unlawfully laying off employees during the shutdown and improperly using the shutdown as the basis for the layoffs.”

President Trump’s mass firings have so far failed to convince key Democratic legislators to change their stance during the ongoing government shutdown. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine stated that he would continue his opposition to the Administration’s tactics, and that the Trump Administration was “threatening to hurt us. You’ve been hurting us since Jan. 20.” Senator Mark Warner wrote on X that “Republicans are intentionally holding federal workers hostage to force through their agenda driving up health care costs for millions.” Both Senators Kaine and Warner are from Virginia, a state with the second-highest concentration of federal employees in the country. Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations Senator Patty Murray additionally stated on X that “we can’t be intimidated by these crooks.”