Overview
- In a court-ordered filing, Interior detailed cuts across 89 competitive areas targeting 2,050 positions, including about 770 in the Office of the Secretary, 474 at BLM, 335 at USGS, roughly 270 at NPS, and about 142 at FWS.
- Judge Susan Illston's order, expanded to cover additional unions, blocks the department from proceeding with RIFs in affected areas during the shutdown.
- Because the TRO applies by competitive area, some nonunion positions in those groups are also protected, pausing planned actions for more than 4,800 union-represented employees within a pool of over 14,000 under review.
- Interior told the court its workforce plans predate the Oct. 1 funding lapse and said it has paused all RIF work covered by the order.
- The filing points to concentrated impacts on regional support offices and science centers, including NPS regional offices in the Southeast, Northeast and Pacific West, BLM state offices in Utah and Oregon/Washington, and USGS centers such as the Great Lakes, Fort Collins and Columbia facilities.