Overview
- Interior’s court filing outlines reductions across 89 competitive areas, including about 770 jobs in the Office of the Secretary, 474 at the Bureau of Land Management, roughly 335 at the U.S. Geological Survey, about 270 at the National Park Service and 142 at the Fish and Wildlife Service.
- Judge Susan Illston expanded the temporary restraining order to cover additional unions and clarified that blocking layoffs in a competitive area can also halt cuts for nonunion employees in the same group.
- Interior says it has paused all RIF actions under the court order and asserts the layoff plans predated the Oct. 1 funding lapse.
- Several agencies, including Treasury, HHS and Homeland Security, argued in declarations that some layoffs target employees outside the unions in the case, keeping the scope of the TRO in dispute.
- The administration previously reported more than 4,100 federal workers had been laid off since Oct. 1, and further actions now hinge on pending court proceedings over a longer injunction.