Questionable slaughter
Today's layoffs are the work of White House Budget Director Russell Vought, one of the key creators of the Project 2025 playbook, which planned a massive reduction in the federal workforce. In a post on X earlier today, Vought announced that the terminations “have begun.”
But as The Washington Post has previously reported, senior administration officials have warned that Vought's layoffs during a shutdown are likely illegal and violate the Antideficiency Act. The law prohibits the government from incurring new costs during a shutdown, and the process of laying off employees – including severance pay – does just that.
Federal labor lawyers told the Post that the move is almost certainly illegal for a second reason: Under federal regulations, a funding lapse caused by the shutdown does not count as one of the reasons federal employees can be fired.
Last week, the American Federation of Government Employees and other unions representing federal workers filed a lawsuit over threats that the Trump administration would try to lay off workers during the shutdown.
In a statement today, AFGE President Everett Kelley said, “It is shameful that the Trump Administration has used the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally fire thousands of workers who provide critical services to communities across the country.”
“AFGE is currently challenging President Trump's illegal, unprecedented abuse of power, and we will not stop fighting until every notice of reduction in force is rescinded,” Kelley said.
