U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration must for now stop laying off workers during the government shutdown, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston issued the emergency order after federal agencies on Friday began issuing layoff notices aimed at reducing the size of the federal government. The layoff notices are part of an effort by the Republican Trump administration to put more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
Illston said the administration was acting without thinking through its decisions.
“It’s quite ready, shoot, aim most of these programs, and it comes at a human cost,” she said. “This is a human cost that cannot be tolerated.”
At the same time, Trump will extend his ban on hiring new federal workers, with some exceptions, according to an executive order issued Wednesday by the White House. The ban was set to expire on October 15.
Trump signed an order Wednesday directing Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth to ensure that active-duty U.S. military personnel receive their pay on Oct. 15 despite the shutdown, the White House said.
Trump directed Hegseth “to use for pay and allowance purposes all funds appropriated by Congress that remain available for expenditures in fiscal year 2026 to accomplish the scheduled disbursement of military pay and allowances for active-duty military personnel,” according to the text of the executive order shared by the White House on social media.
More budget cuts planned: budget director
Meanwhile, the current government shutdown is delaying the announcement of Social Security’s annual cost-of-living adjustment for tens of millions of beneficiaries. Initially scheduled for Wednesday, the Social Security COLA announcement for 2024 will now take place on October 24. It is timed based on the September consumer price index, which has not yet been released.
Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought said in an interview on the “Charlie Kirk Show” Wednesday that many more workforce reductions, known as RIFS or workforce reduction plans, are planned as the shutdown continues.
He said court filings from last week showing at least 4,000 people were laid off are “just a snapshot and I think that number is going to rise further. We’re going to keep these RIFS operating throughout this shutdown because we think it’s important to stay offensive to the American taxpayer and the American people.”
Vought also said, “We want to be very aggressive where we can be in closing down the bureaucracy. Not just the funding, but the bureaucracy, and now we have the opportunity to do that.”
In a social media post, US President Donald Trump said Republicans should take advantage of the government shutdown “to clear out deadwood, trash and fraud”, while blaming congressional Democrats for the shutdown.
A group of airlines discusses the risks linked to aviation
The head of a U.S. airline trade group called for an end to the shutdown, citing concerns about the growing pressure faced by air traffic controllers working without pay.
“It has to stop like it is now, because with every day that goes by, the pressures increase, the risks increase,” Chris Sununu, CEO of Airlines for America, a major trade group representing carriers American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, said in an interview.
“You’re getting closer and closer to these air traffic controllers who are just feeling financial pressures.”
Aviation groups are increasingly concerned about the potential impact of a prolonged government shutdown after a surge in sick calls from controllers led to thousands of delays since the shutdown began. The Air Line Pilots Association and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association have both called for a quick end to the shutdown.
More than 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers have received partial pay in recent days and will not later this month if the impasse is not resolved.
