Day 15 of the government shutdown saw a judge temporarily block the Trump administration from firing federal workers. Here's your evening update.
Judge Blocks Trump Layoffs as Vought Signals Thousands More to Come
Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought said Wednesday that more than 10,000 federal workers could be fired during the government shutdown.
"We want to be very aggressive where we can be in shuttering the bureaucracy, not just the funding," Vought said on "The Charlie Kirk Show," which was broadcasting from the White House. "We're going to keep those RIFs rolling throughout the shutdown, because we think it's important to stay on offense for the American taxpayer," he added, referring to reductions in force, the bureaucratic term for layoffs.
Asked for an estimate of total layoffs, Vought said, "I think we'll probably end up being north of 10,000."
Vought also discussed some of the programs that could be killed off, including green energy initiatives within the Department of Energy, environmental justice efforts at the Environmental Protection Agency, and a minority development agency within the Commerce Department. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - an agency currently led by Vought - is also being targeted for closure within the next two or three months.
The White House said it sent about 4,200 RIF notices last Friday.
Judge halts layoffs: Soon after Vought spoke, a federal judge in the Northern District of California issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from laying off government workers during the shutdown. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit from two unions representing federal workers seeking to prevent the Trump administration from carrying through on its planned staffing cuts.
"The activities that are being undertaken here are contrary to the laws," U.S. District Court Judge Susan Yvonne Illston said at a hearing, per NBC News. "You can't do this in a nation of laws. And we have laws here, and the things that are being articulated here are not within the law."
The judge said she thinks the plaintiffs can show that the Trump administration's actions are illegal, "arbitrary and capricious." The Trump administration has "taken advantage of the lapse in government spending and government functioning to assume that all bets are off, the laws don't apply to them anymore, and they can impose the structures that they like on the government situation that they don't like," Illston added.
Federal workers as political footballs: House Speaker Mike Johnson defended the layoffs being directed by the White House budget office. He acknowledged that the decisions about cuts are being made through a "partisan lens," but insisted that Vought and President Donald Trump and doing what they have to, reluctantly, because of the lapse in appropriations.
"They are - what's the right word? - forlorn about this," Johnson said. "No one on the Republican side is taking any pleasure in this scenario. Yes, we are always for reducing the size and scope of the government and all of that, but this is not the way to go about it."
Democrats, meanwhile, continued to blast the administration for the firings, calling them unnecessary.
"Let's be very clear, nobody forced the administration to do these firings," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor, talking about last week's layoffs. "They did it because they wanted to, period. They did it on their own. This decision, which Trump made, and his administration made and Russell Vought made, was so callous, so unnecessary, so deeply hurtful to hard-working Americans."
Military Servicemembers Get Their Pay
The Trump administration reportedly redirected some $6.5 billion to cover the paychecks scheduled for today for 1.3 million active-duty troops and thousands of active National Guard members and reservists. "That funding comes from a pot of about $10 billion leftover military R&D funding that's available into next fall," Politico reported.
As Republican and Democratic leaders again held dueling news conferences, Speaker Mike Johnson slammed Democratic senators for voting against reopening the government and putting the next paychecks for military servicemembers at risk.
Johnson told reporters this week that the administration has the right to shift the funds to pay the troops, but congressional Democrats have said that it is likely illegal. Still, they're not moving to challenge it, even as they criticize the Trump administration for continually challenging Congress's power over federal spending. "This is what we would've wanted to do anyway," Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, told Axios.
The bottom line: The next scheduled payday for the troops is October 31. The following day is when open enrollment for Affordable Care Act plans begins. So while there's no movement in the shutdown now, those dates might provide a pressure point that shakes up the stalemate.
Thune Looks to Pass Defense Funding Bill, Pressure Democrats
In a 51-44 vote, the Senate on Thursday again failed to advance a Republican plan to fund the government through November 21 - the ninth time the bill has been blocked. As that pressure tactic devolves into a parliamentary version of "Groundhog Day," Senate Majority Leader John Thune is set to try something new: He set up a procedural vote for Thursday on the House-passed fiscal 2026 funding bill for the Defense Department.
It's not clear yet whether Democrats will block the measure, though House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters he expects that will be the case.
A failed vote would again give Republicans ammunition to hammer Democrats for standing in the way of the regular government funding process. But some Republicans say they hope that progress on the annual appropriations process may help sway some Democrats to end the shutdown.
"If we can show that we can move the appropriations bills, there's absolutely no justification or rationale for a government shutdown," Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins told Politico on Tuesday.
X Post of the Day
From Brendan Buck, former press secretary to House Speaker John Boehner and adviser to House Speaker Paul Ryan:
Number of the Day: $51 Million
The Department of Homeland Security is running the "most expensive political ad campaign of the year," and U.S. taxpayers are paying for it, Axios reports.
The department has spent at least $51 million this year on ads thanking President Trump for securing the border, Axios says, citing data from AdImpact, a tracking firm. That's about $10 million more than the next largest ad spend, the high-profile effort to support California's redistricting campaign.
"[T]his isn't a political ad-this is a public service announcement urging illegal aliens to leave," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Axios.
Axios notes that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a part of the Department of Homeland Security, has spent another $10 million on ads in support of its recruitment efforts.
Fiscal News Roundup
- Judge Blocks Trump's Layoffs During Shutdown, Calling Them Illegal – NBC News
- Vought Says Layoffs During Shutdown Likely to Exceed 10,000 People – The Hill
- Speaker Johnson Suggests House Would Return to Fund DOD - but Only if the Government Is Reopened – The Hill
- Mike Johnson and Hakeem Jeffries Will Debate on C-SPAN – Politico
- Murkowski Lone Republican on Dem Letter to White House Budget Office – Politico
- Trump Administration Guts Education Department With More Layoffs – New York Times
- The Health-Care Debate That's Driving the Shutdown (Again) – Bloomberg Businessweek
- Why Dems Aren't Fighting Trump's "Illegal" Shutdown Workarounds – Axios
- Government Shutdown Delays Social Security's Cost-of-Living Announcement – CBS News
- Government Shutdown Delays Release of Critically Important Inflation Figures – Associated Press
- The Government Shutdown Is Putting a Renewed Spotlight on the Cracks in the US Aviation System – Associated Press
- Trump's Trade War With China Catches the World in Its Crossfire – New York Times
- Trump Administration Will Set Price Floors Across Range of Industries to Combat China, Bessent Says – CNBC
- Before Alaska Flooding, E.P.A. Canceled $20 Million Flood Protection Grant – New York Times
- IMF Warns US Must Tackle Its Yawning Deficit – Financial Times
- Global Public Debt Set to Top Post-WWII Levels by 2029, IMF Says – Bloomberg
Views and Analysis
- An Obamacare Deal Could End the Shutdown. It Won't Be Easy – Ed Kilgore, New York
- Trump Is Opting Some of the Government Out of the Shutdown – Jacob Bogage, Riley Beggin and Perry Stein, Washinton Post
- Trump Says He 'Defeated' Inflation - So Why Do Prices Keep Going Up? – Max Burns, The Hill
- Trump's Tariff Tantrums – Robert Kuttner, American Prospect
- Three Exaggerations About the US Economy Right Now – Ernie Tedeschi, Bloomberg
- Government Debt Is a Global Problem – Bloomberg Editorial Board
- There's a Shocking Disparity Between How High-Income and Low-Income Earners Feel About the Economy – CNBC
- Why Bank CEOs See Economic Turbulence Ahead – Andrew Ross Sorkin et al., New York Times
- Trump's Opposition to Clean Energy Is Costing You Money – Laura Gillam, Washington Monthly
- Congress Can Rein In Executive Power – William A. Galston, Wall Street Journal
- The United Nations Is About to Tax You – Wall Street Journal Editorial Board
- RFK Jr. Misses Mark in Touting Rural Health Transformation Fund as Historic Infusion of Cash – Arielle Zionts, KFF Health News
- We Can Restructure Debt for Humanitarian Ends – David Miliband, Financial Times
- Gold Cards, Wealthy Immigrants and a Trumpified American Dream – Jesús Rodríguez, Washington Post
- How I Became a Populist – Alvaro M. Bedoya, New Republic