President Donald Trump’s administration began laying off employees at several federal agencies on Friday, Oct. 10, during the ongoing government shutdown.
Federal workers in California were among those fired after Trump announced plans to use the shutdown to shrink the federal workforce.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) notified a federal employee union representing California workers that it would lay off staff involved in programs “not in alignment with the President’s Management Agenda or the Administration’s priorities.”
According to court filings, at least 442 HUD employees received layoff notices, though it’s unclear where they were located. Federal data shows more than 500 HUD employees work in California.
Roberta Beggs, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) Local 1450, said 20 members of her union received reduction-in-force notices this week. The letters informed workers they would lose their jobs by December 9. Among them were a new parent and an employee recovering from a stroke, Beggs said.
Beggs criticized the administration for violating NFFE’s labor agreement, which requires agencies to notify the union 15 days before issuing layoff notices. “The whole workforce has been pretty traumatized for the past nine months,” she said. “This is just a continuation.”
Shutting Down ‘Democrat Agencies’
Earlier this month, Trump posted on social media that he planned to use the shutdown to eliminate what he called “Democrat Agencies,” though he didn’t specify which departments.
“HUD is implementing a reduction in force to align our programs with the Administration’s priorities and the appropriations available to the department,” a HUD spokesperson said Friday.
Beggs argued the cuts were based on politics rather than performance, calling the move a “hatchet job” and comparing it to layoffs earlier this year under the Department of Government Efficiency.
California has roughly 150,000 federal civilian employees, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Many are either furloughed or working without pay as Congress continues to debate a new budget.
Thousands Notified of Layoffs
While the exact number of affected employees remains unclear, court filings suggest that at least 4,100 federal workers received layoff notices Friday.
The filings are part of a federal lawsuit brought by the American Federation of Government Employees in the Northern District of California, challenging the administration’s actions.
Both the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Internal Revenue Service confirmed issuing layoff notices but did not disclose how many employees were affected.
“HHS under the Biden administration became a bloated bureaucracy, growing its budget by 38% and its workforce by 17%,” said HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon. “All HHS employees receiving reduction-in-force notices were designated non-essential by their respective divisions.”
He added that the department is continuing to eliminate “wasteful and duplicative entities” as part of the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again initiative.
Max Alonzo, national secretary-treasurer for NFFE, called the layoffs illegal, noting that conducting a reduction-in-force requires federal funding—which Congress has not approved since the shutdown began on October 1.
Democrats in Congress echoed this argument in letters to 24 agency heads, warning that issuing layoffs during the shutdown violated the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits agencies from spending funds not appropriated by Congress.
Alonzo said the Trump administration’s actions reflect “a complete disregard for the law. And they know it, but they don’t care.”
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