OMB delays firing federal workers to comply with court order

David Jordan, CQ-Roll Call on Oct 17, 2025

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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration in court filings submitted Friday said that it was holding off firing thousands of federal workers in order to comply with a temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge in California.

The filings came ahead of a 6 p.m. Eastern time Friday hearing on the status of the TRO preventing the Trump administration from carrying out the reductions in force across the federal government. The case challenges the administration’s ability to carry out the firings during a lapse in funding. District Judge Susan Illston is hearing the case in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

“OMB has not issued any RIF notices implicated by the Court’s TRO. OMB will not proceed with any RIFs prohibited by the Court’s TRO while this matter is being litigated before the Court, absent an order from a higher court providing relief,” Sarah Spooner, the White House Office of Management and Budget assistant director for management and operations, said in the filing.

In a series of additional filings from most federal departments and agencies, the administration disclosed that it had sent just under 2,500 notices to government employees, but that they remain on hold. The figure appeared to include only those workers unionized with the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, who brought the case.

That would leave out managers as well as employees represented by other unions such as the National Treasury Employees Union.

The 2,500 figure is below the 4,100 civilian federal workers the administration said would receive a RIF notice in an Oct. 10 filing. It is also below the 10,000 workers OMB Director Russ Vought said would be fired during an Oct. 15 episode of the Charlie Kirk radio show broadcast from the White House.

The Department of Health and Human Services reported the largest number of RIFs in the Friday filings with 982, followed by the departments of Education, with 465; Housing and Urban Development, with 442; and Commerce, with 282.

The Interior Department, which unions said in a filing early Friday was preparing to fire thousands of employees, didn’t specify the number of reductions in force in its submission later in the day. Illston, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, scheduled the Friday hearing because of concerns about a large reduction in force at the department.

The Interior Department has been considering layoffs for months. An court injunction prevented the department from carrying out layoffs in May. The Supreme Court overturned that injunction but the department hasn’t so far implemented any reductions in force.

Rachel Borra, the department’s chief human capital officer, said in the Friday filing that the department has stopped work on reductions in force.

“Interior had intended on imminently abolishing positions in 68 competitive areas that include plaintiff bargaining unit employees,” she said.

“Among those streamlining efforts, Interior has been working on potential RIF plans since early this year,” Borra wrote. “These planning efforts were begun long before the current lapse in appropriations and had nothing to do with the lapse in appropriations.”

The unions and other opponents of the reductions say the firings are a significant departure from the norm in a shutdown and are not the type of work agencies can undertake during a shutdown.

Previous shutdowns, including during President Donald Trump’s first term, did not result in any reductions in force. In all other shutdowns, federal workers who are classified as “excepted” employees remained on the job while all others were furloughed, and all received back pay after the government reopened.

The current Trump administration has said in legal filings it has the authority to conduct mass firings for a variety of reasons, including “shortage of funds.”

The Energy Department didn’t submit a filing.

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Sandhya Raman, Caitlin Hendel, Kelly Livingston and Jessica Wehrman contributed to this report.

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