Government Officials Break With Trump on ‘Mass Firing’ Plans

Government officials are warning that the “massive layoffs” promised by President Donald Trump amid the government shutdown could expose the administration to legal action, according to a report in the Washington Post.

Trump has expressed his intention to cut spending at “Democratic agencies” with the help of his budget planner, Russell Vought, architect of Project 2025.

However, according to anonymous sources close to the Washington Post, officials are warning agencies against any public layoffs during the government shutdown, which the White House deems necessary despite the lack of stated or prior benefits, arguing that this could violate the Deficit Control Act.

The Deficit Control Act prohibits the government from incurring new spending during a government shutdown, when government funding expires. Severance payments owed to furloughed federal employees are considered new government spending.

The unions have already filed a lawsuit against Vought, asking a court to declare the layoff threats unlawful and invalidate any layoffs made during the government shutdown.

The lawsuit asserts that “nothing in the Deficit Action Act, or any other law, authorizes workforce reductions in agencies or programs facing a funding disruption.” “To the contrary, the law explicitly provides that all employees not paid during the shutdown—whether furloughed or exempt—will receive retroactive pay for that period once funding is restored.”

Federal regulations governing reductions in force stipulate that an employee can be terminated for several reasons, including lack of funding, lack of work, agency reorganization, transfer, or elimination of a position. There is no precedent for workforce reductions resulting from Congress’s inability to agree on government funding.

Furthermore, the government requires federal employees to receive 60 days’ notice before being terminated. There is no clear timeline for how long the shutdown will last, and it’s likely the government will resume operations well before potentially laid-off employees leave their jobs.

“I don’t understand how the government can issue layoff notices tomorrow, announcing a funding shortfall, and then [hypothetically] secure new funding on Friday,” Debra D’Agostino, founding partner of the Federal Practice Group, told the Washington Post.

The government has already undergone a massive dismantling process due to the chaotic partnership between the Department of Government Efficiency and the White House. The administration began begging some of the employees laid off by the Department of Government Efficiency to return in late September.

Vote opposed Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency from the beginning of his term, believing that Musk’s pay cut plan undermined his own.

However, if Trump’s pay cuts go into effect, they may not lead to the kind of Democratic layoffs Trump and Vote dreamed of again, due to legal hurdles.