#federal-layoffs

#federal-layoffs

Over the past year, waves of federal layoffs have left thousands of government employees and contractor clients suddenly out of work. For foreign intelligence services, that disruption has opened new opportunities. With more former U.S. officials seeking employment or freelance work - often in specialized national security fields - adversaries, namely China, have stepped in, posing as consulting firms, research groups and recruiters.

With the combination of the longest government shutdown, the mass firings of government workers and a fresh cut in federal food aid, the Capital Area Food Bank in Washington is bracing for the swell of people who will need its help before the holiday season. The food bank, which serves 400 pantries and aid organizations in the District of Columbia, northern Virginia and two Maryland counties, is providing 8 million more meals than it had prepared to this budget year a nearly 20% increase.

Founded in 1994 and housed at the US Department of Treasury, the CDFI Fund, with modest federal allocations ($324 million in fiscal year 2025, the fund's highest core funding ever), has helped spur a network of community lending institutions. Not long ago, due to their ability to support businesses during the pandemic in low-income communities, CDFIs had garnered record support, including $12 billion in one-time funding to support lending by CDFIs and other banks and credit unions owned by and operating in communities of color.

President Trump confirmed yesterday that he has authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela. He portrayed it as part of a pressure campaign against the country's drug trade. On Tuesday, the U.S. military struck a fifth boat that the Trump administration said was carrying drugs. The U.S. has also built up forces in the Caribbean in a way that raises questions about whether this goes beyond interrupting the drug trade and could possibly be about regime change.

Numbers are still sketchy, but reports from Friday indicate that more than 4,000 federal workers overall were initially targeted for layoffs. The Trump administration linked the firings to the ongoing government shutdown, which legal experts have suggested is illegal. Unions representing federal workers have already filed a lawsuit challenging the move. Of the reported 4,000 terminations, about 1,100 to 1,200 were among employees in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

President Trump laid off about 4,200 federal employees Friday night, claiming the government shutdown left him no choice. No previous shutdown has resulted in layoffs. ( Government Executive) The layoffs affected the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, HUD, the IRS, EPA, and other agencies. ( NPR) The layoffs were conducted without much precision in hundreds of cases: Some at CDC "were mistakenly fired through a 'coding error,'" two sources told Politico; and they and others will be rehired by HHS. ( Politico)

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought announced on Friday that his office has started firing federal workers, writing on X that the RIFs [reduction-in-force] have begun. A spokesperson for the budget office told The Associated Press that the layoffs are substantial, without providing further details. During a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Trump clarified that he's only focused on cutting Democratic programs, saying, That's the way it works.

The IRS will furlough nearly half of its workforce as part of the ongoing government shutdown, according to the an updated contingency plan posted Wednesday to the agency website. Most IRS operations are closed, the agency said in a separate letter to IRS workers. The news comes after President Donald Trump and Congress failed to strike an agreement to fund federal operations and the government shutdown has entered its second week, with no discernible endgame in sight.

You just said that this is an unenviable choice, said ABC's Mary Bruce. But the president has described this as an unprecedented opportunity to lay off additional workers. He posted a video likening [Office of Management and Budget chief] Russell Vought to the Grim Reaper. So which is this? Is this an opportunity to fire more workers or an unfortunate consequence?

Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images Top Democrats unloaded on the White House for turning up the pressure in Washington's funding standoff, instructing agencies to prepare for mass layoffs if Congress fails to pass a spending bill by Oct. 1. In a memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), seen by Politico and published in full by Puck, the administration signaled it is prepared to go further than the usual furloughs seen in past shutdowns.

Monica Elliot found purpose in her backcountry trail work with the U.S. Forest Service, but federal layoffs left her without a summer job.

The State Department is set to begin firing more than 1,300 people, with plans to downsize affecting approximately 1,107 civil service and 246 foreign service officers.

In May, home prices hit a record high in the region, with a median sold price of $659,950, up from $640,000 a year ago.

...there is so much chaos and uncertainty associated with Trump's policies and tariff policy in particular. This uncertainty makes it harder to maintain a stable economy.