Unions Win Shutdown-RIF Settlement: Administration Formally Rescinds Its Shutdown Layoff Playbook

Unions Win Shutdown-RIF Settlement: Administration Formally Rescinds Its Shutdown Layoff Playbook

On Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, the Trump administration settled the federal unions' lawsuit (AFGE v. OMB, filed Sept. 30, 2025) over its attempt to conduct mass reductions-in-force during the record 43-day fall 2025 government shutdown. Per Federal News Network, the settlement "halts the current litigation and renders all guidance and directives related to the shutdown RIFs officially rescinded¹." Agencies have 30 days to remove remaining references to the shutdown-RIF guidance from their websites and contingency plans, and any future revision of shutdown-related RIF plans requires 30 days' advance notice to federal unions.

The backdrop: in the days before the 2025 shutdown, OMB told agencies to begin drafting mass firing plans; roughly 4,000 federal employees received layoff notices before federal courts blocked the layoffs (preliminary injunction October 2025, expanded December 2025). AFGE President Everett Kelley: "Today, working people won... The administration tried to turn a shutdown into an excuse to fire the public servants who kept this country running without a paycheck on payday, and we refused to let it stand. We fought back, we held the line and they backed down." NFFE President Randy Erwin: "using it as a tactic to fire public servants was a new low for the Trump administration... Not only was it absolutely shameful, but it was also highly illegal."

Why it matters: this is one of the few executive-power consolidation campaigns the administration has formally, contractually abandoned rather than litigating up to the Supreme Court. It defuses the shutdown-as-RIF weapon ahead of the next funding cliff — the continuing resolution signed Sept. 2, 2026 (H.R. 6500, House 370-48, Senate 90-6) funds the government only through Dec. 11, so the next shutdown fight lands just after the midterms, and any RIF revival now carries a 30-day union-notice tripwire. It is the litigation-and-organizing counterpart to the impoundment fight the administration is still pressing in Pocket Rescission: GAO Says Illegal (Again), First Lawsuit Filed — as the $810M Lapses.