OMB’s Vought says 10,000 layoffs might come during shutdown

Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said government layoffs could reach over 10,000 as the government shutdown drags into its third week.

That figure is more than double what the White House said it was cutting in court filings last week.

“We want to be very aggressive where we can be in shuttering the bureaucracy, not just the funding,” Mr. Vought said Wednesday on “The Charlie Kirk Show” live from the White House. “We now have an opportunity to do that, and that’s where we’re going to be looking for our opportunities.”

He said the reductions in force will keep rolling throughout the shutdown.

A court filing showed last week that over 4,000 employees were receiving notices at the departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Homeland Security and Treasury.

Mr. Vought said that most reporting of the layoffs have “been based on kind of court snapshots,” but the real number will be much higher.

“I think we’ll probably end up being north of 10,000,” he said. “If I can only work on saving money, then I’m going to do everything I can to look for opportunities to downsize in areas where this administration has thought, well, this is our way towards a balanced budget.”

Unions have gone to court to stop the firings, and a judge Wednesday temporarily blocked the layoffs. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco issued the emergency ruling.

It’s very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost,” the Clinton appointee said. “It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated.”

Mr. Vought also signaled that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could also soon be shuttered, in a matter of two or three months.

“We don’t have anyone working there except our Republican appointees and a few careers that are doing statutory responsibilities while we close down the agency,” he said.

He acknowledged that the mission of the C.F.P.B. is important, but said the agency “wasn’t doing it.”

“All they want to do is weaponize the tools of financial laws against basically small mom-and-pop lenders and other small financial institutions,” he said.