It’s been ten days since the Donald Trump-imposed shutdown disrupted the lives of Americans. With uncertainty hanging over federal services and paychecks, the latest point of contention is the start of mass firings. While the authorities are still yet busy pointing fingers towards the Democrat predecessors, the decision of letting go of employees from different departments does not seem to be fueled by any other new reason or cause. A White House budget statement released Friday offered insight into the next steps the government plans to take as it moves toward layoffs.
As per the statement of budget, the mass firings have already begun, and notices have been sent across to nearly 4000 employees in total. It is believed that Trump’s move in favor of the mass firing has just been to ensure that there remains a uniform and rather more pressure on the Democratic lawmakers, who have been tagged as the root cause of the shutdown by the Republicans right from the beginning of it all.
Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, took to X and typed the words “RIFs have begun” in order to flag off the process that will enable to resize of the federal government significantly. Later, in a court filing, the budget office further remarked that the firing of 4000 employees would take place at a time when it is already noted that the funding situation was ‘fluid and rapidly evolving’.
The federal departments that are supposed to be the worst hit due to this mass firing would be the Treasury, which would lose a total of about 1400 employees. This is followed by Health and Human Services letting go of 1100 workers, and subsequently, with Housing and Urban Development at 400.
Additionally, the departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, and Homeland Security, and the Environmental Protection Agency are said to be letting go of about 500 employees each. With so many workers and officials being out of service, payroll, it is confident yet uncertain as to how many government programs will be directly affected, considering the alarming count of unmanned departments being in place.
This highly aggressive decision by Trump has not only drawn criticism from Democrats under pressure, but even specific segments of Republicans have also expressed their deep dissatisfaction over how things are panning out, rendering nearly everyone jobless. With talks about the shutdown being called off being almost non-existent, the previous track record of such events in the political history of the United States shows that federal employees fired this way are furloughed for the time being, and their jobs are restored once the situation improves, along with some amount of payback. Approximately 750,000 employees could be reinstated, according to reports.
Adding to the backlash, Trump’s claim that the firings mainly target Democrat-leaning areas has drawn even more outrage than expected. Interestingly enough, even Republicans have looked down upon this call of mass firing, with some calling the move ‘poorly timed’ and a clear example of punitive government action toward the federal workforce, even accusing it of deliberate chaos.
With firing notices already sent, the line stating that reinstating employees is ‘not consistent with the President’s priorities’ has offered little hope to those whose futures hang in the balance.
