White House budget director Russ Vought has warned that more than 10,000 federal employees are expected to lose their jobs as a result of the ongoing government shutdown.
Vought confirmed that reduction-in-force (RIF) notices are being issued across multiple agencies and stated the administration intends to “continue the RIFs” as part of broader efforts to downsize the federal workforce.
However, shortly after Vought’s comments, a federal judge in California temporarily blocked the layoffs associated with the shutdown. The Trump administration plans to challenge the ruling.
According to court documents, approximately 4,000 federal employees have already been terminated. Vought told Politico that the final number will likely surpass 10,000 as the shutdown continues.
Speaking on The Charlie Kirk Show in his first live interview since the shutdown began, Vought said the administration is aggressively targeting what it views as unnecessary or politically misaligned federal programs.
“We want to be very aggressive where we can be in shuttering the bureaucracy—not just the funding, but the bureaucracy,” Vought said.
He cited potential layoffs in agencies such as the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental justice offices, the Minority Business Development Agency, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Vought’s comments came one day after former President Donald Trump announced that, if the shutdown persists through the end of the week, he will unveil a new list of federal programs slated for elimination.
“We’re closing up programs that are Democrat programs that we were opposed to,” Trump said Tuesday. “And they’re never going to come back in many cases.”
Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson issued a warning Wednesday that the Trump administration’s stopgap effort to fund military pay during the shutdown is only a temporary measure.
At a Capitol Hill press conference, Johnson praised the administration’s move to reallocate unspent Department of Defense research and development funds to cover active-duty service members’ pay. However, he emphasized that the workaround is not sustainable long-term.
“The executive branch’s help is not permanent. It can’t be,” Johnson said. “If the Democrats continue to vote to keep the government closed as they have done so many times, then we know U.S. troops are going to risk missing a full paycheck at the end of this month.”
The administration’s action brought short-term relief to military families who were otherwise facing missed paychecks due to the shutdown, which began earlier this month after the Senate failed to pass a funding bill.
Johnson reiterated that while the move was necessary, it doesn’t resolve the broader funding crisis. “This is not an enduring solution,” he said. “We will run out of the funds.”
As the shutdown drags on, thousands of federal employees have been furloughed or temporarily laid off. Those categorized as “essential,” such as active-duty military and federal law enforcement personnel, continue to work—often without pay—until a funding agreement is reached.
The House passed a continuing resolution on September 19 to keep the government funded through November 21, providing a window for lawmakers to negotiate a broader fiscal year 2026 budget deal. The resolution, however, needs 60 votes to advance in the Senate.
To date, only three Senate Democrats have joined Republicans in voting to end the shutdown.
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