Federal judge halts Trump administration layoffs amid government shutdown

The senior official in the Trump administration’s budget office said that the number of federal job cuts is underway government shutdown can exceed 10,000; While a federal judge temporarily suspended layoffs.

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought appeared on “The Charlie Kirk Show” Wednesday at the White House and said the administration’s efforts are aimed at… Reducing the federal workforce The number of workers in the midst of the lockdown is likely to grow beyond the nearly 4,000 workers who have received reduction in force (RIF) notices so far.

“This is just a snapshot, and I think it will go up a lot,” Foote said. “I think we’ll probably end up north of 10,000.”

“We will keep these regional regulatory structures going throughout the shutdown, because we believe it is important for American taxpayers to remain on the offensive,” he added.

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the The white house The budget chief said the Trump administration wants to go beyond reducing the workforce to shutting down parts of the federal bureaucracy.

“We want to be as aggressive as we can be in closing down the bureaucracy, not just the funding,” Foote said.

Management’s efforts to reduce the workforce through layoffs were temporarily blocked Wednesday by A.J Federal court ruling.

Johnson warns that the White House may “run out” of money to pay for military expenses if the shutdown continues

The government shutdown began on October 1. (Brendan Smalowski/AFP/Getty Images)

After a hearing in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Susan Elston granted a request from two government employee unions to block Management layoffs at more than 30 agencies during the course of the case.

Elston cited comments made by the president Donald Trump So did Vaught, who said she showed clear political motivations for the layoffs, such as Trump saying the cuts would target “Democratic agencies.”

Trump sees ‘unprecedented opportunity’ to cut government during shutdown

OMB Director Russell Vought sought to reduce the federal workforce during the shutdown. (Alison Robert/Bloomberg via/Getty Images)

“You can’t do that in a nation of laws,” said Elston, who was appointed to the judiciary during the Clinton administration. “We have laws here, and the things that are spelled out here are not within the law.”

Justice Department lawyer Elizabeth Hedges said unions should submit their demands to the Federal Labor Council before going to court.

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Reuters contributed to this report.