The White House budget office said on Friday (October 10, 2025) that mass firings of federal workers have started, an attempt by President Donald Trump's administration to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown dragged into a 10th day.
Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said on the social media site X that the “RIFs have begun,” referring to reduction-in-force plans aimed at reducing the size of the federal government.
A spokesperson for the budget office said the reductions are “substantial” but did not offer more details.
Employees at the departments of Education, Treasury, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, were set to receive the notices, according to spokespeople for the agencies and union representatives for federal workers.
The aggressive move by Trump's budget office goes far beyond what usually happens in a government shutdown and escalates an already politically toxic dynamic between the
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