While the Trump administration is threatening mass layoffs if the government shuts down this week, it is leaving the door open to those plans to be revised once Congress restores agency funding.
Last week, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget issued new guidance instructing agencies to, if annual spending does lapse Tuesday evening, consider issuing reductions in force notices to all employees whose work is funded by regular appropriations and does not align with President Trump’s priorities. In new guidance issued Sunday, the Office of Personnel Management told agencies that it can tweak those RIF plans once the government reopens.
“Once fiscal year 2026 appropriations are enacted, agencies may consider revising their RIFs as needed to retain the minimal number of employees necessary to carry out statutory functions,” OPM said. “Any proposed RIF plan must be submitted to OMB.”
Any layoff notice sent at the outset of a shutdown is likely to have not yet taken effect by the time the government reopens. Agencies generally must provide 60-days notice to all impacted workers, OPM reminded agencies, meaning those employees will remain on the rolls provided a funding lapse lasts less than two months. Trump oversaw the longest-ever shutdown in 2018-2019, which dragged on for 35 days.
Trump called on all agencies to develop mass layoff plans earlier this year, though only a handful of agencies have so far followed through on implementing them. In some of those cases, agencies have opted to recall small portions of impacted staff back to work.
The Trump administration is allowing agencies to follow through on RIF implementation even if Congress fails to act by Tuesday evening’s deadline, as it has deemed the work necessary to carry them out as exempted from the shutdown.
“OMB has determined that agencies are authorized to direct employees to perform work necessary to administer the RIF process during the lapse in appropriations as excepted activities,” OPM said in its guidance.
During most shutdowns, employees whose work is funded by means other than annual appropriations or who are necessary to protect life, protect property or to deliver statutorily mandated benefits are exempted and continue to work—on the promise of delayed pay. All other employees are furloughed and guaranteed back pay when the government reopens.
OPM advised agencies to separately issue furlough notices to impacted staff. Some employees subject to RIFs may be in furlough status when the notices arrive, while others—even those in the same office or working group—may be exempted, OPM said.
If the effective date of a RIF notice occurs while an employee is furloughed, that employee would still be terminated on that date.
OPM instructed agencies to prepare a “decisional memorandum” that documents the need for the layoffs. The Trump administration previously ran into legal trouble when courts determined that OPM and OMB did not have the authority to mandate workforce decisions within agencies, though the Supreme Court has since cleared a path for such directives.
In their preliminary messages to employees after last week’s OMB guidance directing the RIFs, many agency leaders told staff not to take the shutdown layoff threat seriously. The threat was more of political theater and their workforces had already been cut to the bone, some officials said. In conversations with OMB, however, agency officials said the White House made clear the layoff threat was not intended as a bluff.
Congressional leaders are set to meet with Trump at the White House on Monday to discuss a path forward that would avert a shutdown, though so far all sides remain dug into their positions.
