It will be funny if the government reopens and then Trump fires them anyway and their whole court case is for nothing. Would Trump be able to force the case to keep going if this happens? Settle the matter once and for all so we have have a billion RIF ready to go as a threat should the democrats try to do another shutdown.
If the Senate amendment to the CR goes through, it appears from the text that he won't be able to fire/RIF anybody until January 31st.
Sec. 120. (a) Prohibition.—Notwithstanding section 106(1), during the period between the date of enactment of this Act and the date specified in section 106(3) of this Act, no federal funds may be used to initiate, carry out, implement, or otherwise notice a reduction in force to reduce the number of employees within any department, agency, or office of the Federal Government.
(b) Applicability.—The prohibition under subsection (a) shall apply to all civilian positions, whether permanent, temporary, full-time, part-time, or intermittent, and without regard to the source of funding for such positions.
(c) Exception.—The prohibition under subsection (a) shall not apply to—
(1) voluntary separations or retirements;
(2) actions necessary to comply with a court order; or
(3) actions taken, beginning only on the first day of a lapse in appropriations, necessary to implement or maintain an orderly shutdown of government operations.
(d) Definitions.—For purposes of this section, the term “reduction in force” means actions taken by an agency pursuant to section 3501 through 3504 of title 5, United States Code or section 3595 of such title, or any similar reduction of positions at any department, agency, or office of the Federal Government, unless such reduction has been provided for in this Act.
(e) Notwithstanding section 106(1), any reduction in force proposed, noticed, initiated, executed, implemented, or otherwise taken by an Executive Agency between October 1, 2025, and the date of enactment, shall have no force or effect.
(1) Any employee who received notice of being subject to such a reduction in force shall have that notice rescinded and be returned to employment status as of September 30, 2025, without interruption. Such employees shall receive all pay to which they otherwise would have been entitled in the absence of receiving such notice, including backpay in accordance with section 116 of this Act.
(2) Within 5 days of date of enactment of this Act, each Federal agency shall send notice to all affected employees and the chairs and ranking members of the Appropriations Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives of the withdrawal of the reduction in force notice and the affected employee’s reinstatement, if applicable.
(3) Notices must include reinstatement date and the amount of back pay determined in paragraph (1), if applicable.
(Bolding mine.) So IF this gets signed, everybody who got RIFed when the shutdown started gets brought back, with back pay. BUT, where it mentions "the date specified in section 106(3)" that date is January 30th, 2026. It appears firings can resume at that point. At least, that is my read of it.
lol
