The federal government is on track to shut down unless Congress passes a stopgap spending bill before its deadline.

It's been a tough year to be a federal worker.

One of President Donald Trump's day one orders on Jan. 20 was the establishment of the "U.S. Department of Government Efficiency" to reduce spending and eliminate "waste, bloat, and insularity" in the federal bureaucracy.

Within less than a month, agency heads were ordered to undertake preparations to initiate widespread layoffs. The primary targets were probationary employees across multiple federal agencies.

And now, with the government shut down, many of the remaining employees are furloughed without pay and facing a potential new round of layoffs.

Insults and injuries

Federal civil servants have also endured constant ridicule of their worth by the president's allies.

Billionaire Elon Musk, who was tapped by Trump to head DOGE, was asked during the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in February 2025 about the process of finding "waste" in Washington.

"It's like being in a room and the wall, the roof, and the floor are all targets," he said. "So it's like, you're going to close your eyes and go shoot in any direction. You see, because you can't miss, you know?"

The Trump administration initiated sweeping cuts in the workforce - the federal government is the nation's largest employer, with nearly 3 million civilian employees - through layoffs, forced relocations and a deferred resignation program.

As of Sept. 23, over 201,000 civil servants have left the workforce, according to the Partnership for Public Service. This includes the150,000 federal workers took the Trump administration's "Fork in the Road" buyout offer, resigning with pay and benefits through Sept. 30.

Across the Cabinet agencies, the departments of War, Agriculture and the Treasury have seen the largest workforce reductions. The Department of War, also known as the Department of Defense, saw a reduction of 55,582 workers, the Treasury Department lost 30,267 workers and the Department of Agriculture shrunk by 21,564 employees.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in March announced a major restructuring plan including the consolidation of divisions from 28 to 15 and elimination of 20,000 full-time employees, saying it would save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year.

In May, New York Attorney General Letitia James and 18 other Democratic state attorneys general filed a federal lawsuit challenging the move as "reckless, irrational, and dangerous" which leaves the federal government "unable to execute many of its most vital functions." It also decried the federal employees at HHS who were locked out of their work emails and computers on April 1, as well as abandoned experiments, canceled site visits and trainings and shuttered laboratories.

With the shutdown, a new set of challenges

Amid the impasse in Congress over federal spending and as the prospect of a government shutdown loomed, Trump threatened mass layoffs during an event at the Oval Office on Sept. 29.

"They're taking a risk by having a shutdown. We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible," Trump said of Democrats. "Like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like."

At 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 1, the government shut down, resulting in the furlough of close to 750,000 federal workers and the shuttering of a slew of key programs and services. For example, the Food and Drug Administration's longer-term food safety initiatives, including policy work to help prevent foodborne illnesses, would be halted and the National Park Service will stop trash collection and road repairs.

Federal employees whose jobs involve safety of human life or the protection of property, such as law enforcement, border control, active military, and air traffic controllers cannot be furloughed.

The Office of Management and Budget directed agencies to consider extensive employee layoffs in unfunded programs that are not "administration priorities" under a government shutdown.

"A reduction in the number of federal employees would reduce the daily cost of compensation for furloughed workers," Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel wrote in a letter to Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, describing the impacts of a potential shutdown.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought framed the shutdown as an opportunity for the administration to achive its goal of reducing the federal workforce.

"Let it be said there are all manners of authorities to be able to keep this administration's policy agenda moving forward, and that includes reducing the size and scope of the federal government, and we will be looking for opportunities to do that," Vought told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on Sept. 30.

The American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees on Sept. 30 filed a lawsuit challenging the administration's threats of a mass firing saying it was designed to "inflict punishment on, and further traumatize, federal employees throughout the nation."

These actions are a "cynical use of federal employees as a pawn in Congressional deliberations" and "should be declared unlawful and enjoined by this Court," the lawsuit said.

The White House showed no signs of backing away from its plan.

During an Oct. 1 briefing with reporters, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said "layoffs are imminent."

"They are, unfortunately, a consequence of this government shutdown," she said.

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House Correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal

Federal workers' tough year has seen DOGE, government shutdown. Now they face new layoffs