October 16, 2025

Warren Presses Trump Administration Officials on Additional Illegal Mass Firings of Federal Employees Amidst Trump's Government Shutdown

These new RIFs will only further incapacitate the agency and make it difficult—if not impossible—for it to serve the American public.”

Letter to Department of the Treasury | Letter to Department of Housing and Urban Development | Letter to Department of Commerce

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, sent letters to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick requesting information on Reduction in Force (RIF) plans at their respective agencies. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, also signed the Treasury letter. The letters come in light of the Trump Administration’s decision to send illegal RIF notices to thousands of federal employees amid a government shutdown.

“The Trump Administration has sought to construe the RIFs as a ‘necessary’ part of the government shutdown that began on October 1, 2025,” wrote Ranking Member Warren. “This is, of course, false: in recent years, shutdowns under both Republican and Democratic administrations have ended through bipartisan negotiation—not the arbitrary dismantling of federal programs that serve millions of Americans.”

Ranking Member Warren criticized the Trump Administration’s political motivations for widespread firings: “And on October 9, 2025, President Trump told his cabinet that he was ‘only cutting Democrat programs, some very popular Democrat programs that aren’t popular with Republicans, frankly.’ The President, in other words, is intentionally using the shutdown to deprive the American public, Democrat and Republican, of services.”

“These new RIFs will only further incapacitate the agency and make it difficult—if not impossible—for it to serve the American public,” the Ranking Member continued.

The Ranking Member called on Trump Administration officials to provide details on how additional RIFs will affect their agencies’ ability to serve the American public and comply with their statutory mandates no later than October 22, 2025.

###