More than 4,100 workers have received RIF notices, according to a legal declaration by Stephen Billy, a senior advisor at the Office of Management and Budget.
Affected departments include the Department of Commerce, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Department of Homeland Security and Department of the Treasury.
Hundreds more notices were also sent out by mistake last week.
The Department of Health and Human Services sent out more than 1,700 RIF notices on Oct. 10, but actually meant to send out less than 1,000, according to Thomas Nagy, a human resources official within the Department of Health and Human Services.
“Employees have been working since Oct. 10, 2025, to rescind the notices that had been issued in error,” Nagy said in a declaration to the court.
Department of Justice lawyers argued that the judge did not have jurisdiction in this case and that workers were not entitled to relief through the courts because the layoffs had a 60-day notice period — so the government’s actions would not technically harm workers until after that period had lapsed.
Danielle Leonard, an attorney for the unions, pushed back on the assertion that employees aren’t suffering any harm.
“They’re making people come in, work without pay, to fire their fellow employees, and then those employees are being fired in this context. It is traumatic, it is distressing,” said Leonard, alluding to reports that human resources workers at the Centers for Disease Control were called back into work to process layoffs, including members of their own team.
The defense declined to address the lawsuit’s core claim that the layoffs are illegal.
“I just want to be clear, you’re not making any statement concerning the government’s position on the merits of this, on whether these RIFs are legal or not?” Illston asked during the hearing.
“Not today, your honor,” Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth Hedges said.
