A moratorium on federal employee layoffs lapsed at the start of the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, removing one hurdle faced by the Trump administration as it seeks to remake the size of the federal government. That doesn’t mean the government will face a clean path forward in implementing large-scale layoffs President Donald Trump outlined in executive orders last year, with legal challenges to the administration’s layoff efforts that appear far from over. Congress put the provision to halt layoffs in a continuing resolution in November, part of a deal that ended the longest-ever partial government shutdown. But that provision expired this month when Congress could not come to an agreement on a Homeland Security funding bill. Federal unions said in a court filing late last month that many federal agencies were forced to hold off on their full layoff plans throughout 2025 and into early 2026 because of litigation and that moratorium. But the unions in that filing point to an executive order from October and a government memo from November, as well as actions from Interior, State and Homeland Security departments, as signs of what’s to come. “As 2026 begins, the Administration is poised to continue these efforts to downsize the government, including through additional mass terminations, if the CR language is not extended,” the unions wrote. Such an extension of the restriction on layoffs could be in the mix as Congress and the White House continue negotiations on a fiscal 2026 spending measure for the Department of Homeland Security, where there is a clash over policies for immigration enforcement. Asked about the prohibition earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said an extension of the prohibition “is an issue that could be on the table” as discussions continue. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said the provision “will be a significant part of our conversations, so we continue to reassert congressional authority with respect to the appropriations process.” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. is leading the push for a continuation of the ban in his caucus. “They all know we got this protection for 2 million federal employees, and it is a protection that we got, and that we should maintain it, and I have made that very plain we should maintain it,” Kaine said this month. Kaine said last fall he secured a commitment with Senate leadership and the White House to roll back sweeping reductions in force implemented by the Trump administration during the shutdown, while preventing further mass layoffs through September. And he said the commitment he secured from Republicans should apply no matter how the government is funded. “I didn't distinguish between what if there's a [continuing resolution], what if there's an [appropriations] bill, what if there's a little bit of both? I just said this is what I got to have to reopen,” Kaine said. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., a senior appropriator, is among some Republicans who say the prohibition is not needed. “I don't really think it's necessary right now. I mean, I think, I think the administration's achieved some of the results of the reduction in force that they were trying to achieve,” Capito said. Sen. John Hoeven, R-S.D., another funding chief, said it is “the White House’s call” on whether the prohibition will be continued. “That's for the administration to respond to. We'd have to see what their response is,” Hoeven said. In the meantime, the unions say the administration has made clear its desire to pursue more layoffs. The Department of the Interior told the court in November that it plans to lay off thousands of people across its sub-agencies, according to the union filing. People would be laid off in the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. The Department of State attempted to lay off Foreign Service employees but was temporarily blocked by the layoff moratorium and court action, the filing said. And at least one agency, the Department of Homeland Security, did not wait for the moratorium to expire before moving forward on layoffs, according to the filing. The unions have accused Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of defying the congressional layoff moratorium and disregarding FEMA’s statutory mandate by ordering the rolling separations of FEMA workers, with the aim of cutting the agency staff in half this year. That would eliminate thousands of positions, they say. The department started by targeting a category of disaster relief workers at FEMA, the Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees, known as CORE, the union said in court filings. The union earlier this month filed a motion for a temporary restraining order. They asked a federal judge to ban DHS and FEMA from separating CORE employees from federal employment, and to prohibit the entities from carrying out “any further reduction of any FEMA employee positions.” The judge later converted their filing into a motion for preliminary injunction. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
