White House begins plan for mass firings if there’s a government shutdown

The White House is preparing federal agencies for widespread layoffs if the government shuts down next week, leaving new uncertainty about what would close and what would stay open.

The directive has shaken the federal workforce, which has already undergone sweeping layoffs this year, and is now scrambling to understand who could lose their jobs as soon as Wednesday. Officials have yet to publish plans showing what agencies would close in a shutdown.

The White House Office of Management and Budget issued a memo late Wednesday directing agencies to consider firing employees working on any program that is not funded by another law, such as Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and which does not align with the president’s priorities. Once government funding is reinstated after a shutdown, agencies should revise their plans to keep only the smallest number of employees necessary to legally operate, the memo says. Any such layoffs would add to those initiated earlier this year.

A spokesperson for OMB did not respond to a request Wednesday night for information on which programs would remain open under a shutdown. The GOP law increased spending on defense and immigration enforcement, among other areas, which could mean more money is available to pay for those programs.

“In a year already filled with cruel and relentless attacks on the federal workforce, this is yet another example of this administration treating us like pawns,” said an EPA staffer. “Personally, I am numb,” said a Federal Emergency Management Agency worker. “But I know my colleague who is sole supporter of her family is worried.”

One worker at the General Services Administration said he wished Trump officials would just hurry up and fire him if that’s the ultimate plan. “I’m done living in fear,” he said, adding that he and every one of his remaining colleagues feel miserable and ineffective most days. “Congratulations on ruining the federal workforce in less than a year.”

Many departments appear to have done little, if any, formal planning for a shutdown, according to more than a dozen staffers across multiple agencies — including the State Department, NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration. Most federal workers said they were learning about what might happen to the government, and their jobs, from the news.

Discussions about the shutdown at the State Department are taking place by the water cooler or in private chats. There has been “zero guidance” released, an employee said.

Two employees at FEMA said their agency has begun determining which staffers will have to keep working during a shutdown and which will be furloughed part or full time. Agency leaders are also busy preparing for long-term reductions, warning that there will be fewer positions and less money for everything starting next fiscal year, one staffer said.

As all this is going on, the second FEMA employee noted, the agency is also trying to develop plans to handle an earthquake in the New Madrid zone and possible tropical storms or hurricanes next week. The employee said they have no idea what chaos might be unleashed if large-scale firings proceed. FEMA will somehow have “to recall us unpaid if a storm comes up,” the employee said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) called Trump this week to urge him not to meet with Jeffries and Schumer.