- Over 4,000 federal workers nationwide face layoffs during the government shutdown.
- At least 442 employees from HUD reportedly received termination notices.
- Unions call the Trump administration’s actions illegal under the Antideficiency Act.
- Workers in California say the abrupt dismissals violated labor agreements.
- Trump says the cuts target “Democrat Agencies” as part of his workforce reduction plan.
In a sweeping move that has ignited political and labor tensions, the Trump administration has begun firing federal employees in California as part of a broader plan to reduce the size of the federal workforce during the ongoing government shutdown.
According to a court filing, at least 442 workers at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have received layoff notices. HUD employs more than 500 people in California, where the cuts are expected to hit hardest. A HUD spokesperson confirmed the agency was “implementing a reduction in force to align our programs with the Administration’s priorities and the appropriations available to the department.”
The layoffs come after President Trump announced plans to use the shutdown to eliminate what he called “Democrat Agencies” that he believes do not align with his President’s Management Agenda. The administration argues the cuts are necessary to streamline government operations and control federal spending.
The National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) says the dismissals violate labor agreements and federal law.
Roberta Beggs, president of NFFE Local 1450, which represents HUD employees across several western states, said her union was notified of the layoffs the same day employees were informed — a breach of the required 15-day notice period.
“The whole workforce has been pretty traumatized for the past nine months,” Beggs said. “This is just a continuation.”
She revealed that 20 union-represented employees in her region received reduction-in-force notices, with some workers facing layoffs while recovering from illness or caring for newborns.
National union leaders have condemned the move as illegal under the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits spending money that has not been appropriated by Congress.
Max Alonzo, NFFE’s national secretary-treasurer, said, “The actions of Trump and Russell Vought, the White House Office of Management and Budget director, are illegal. Conducting a reduction-in-force requires federal funding, and new appropriations for these actions have not been issued by Congress since the shutdown began.”
Democrats in Congress echoed that argument, warning agency heads that issuing pink slips during a shutdown violated federal law and undermined worker protections.
Beyond HUD, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) confirmed they had also issued termination notices. The exact number of affected workers remains unclear, though court documents suggest more than 4,100 federal employees were notified of layoffs nationwide on Friday.
In defense of the cuts, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said, “HHS under the Biden administration became a bloated bureaucracy, growing its budget by 38% and its workforce by 17%. All HHS employees receiving reduction-in-force notices were designated non-essential by their respective divisions. HHS continues to close wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.”
California, home to nearly 150,000 federal civilian employees, has become the epicenter of both the job losses and the political debate surrounding them. Many workers remain furloughed or unpaid as Congress stalls on budget negotiations, further straining morale and household finances.
Observers say this marks the first time a mass layoff campaign has been implemented during a U.S. government shutdown. Critics argue it’s part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to reshape the federal workforce and cut long-term labor costs, while supporters frame it as an overdue correction to years of federal expansion.
As the shutdown stretches on, unions are preparing legal challenges in the Northern District of California, seeking injunctions to halt further layoffs and restore due process protections.
Meanwhile, employees await clarity on whether they will be reinstated if Congress passes a new spending bill.
Beggs said the uncertainty has created an atmosphere of fear and frustration: “It’s very clear that from the way they rolled it out, it had nothing to do with performance. This was a hatchet job.”
