Interior Dept. to Cut 2,050 Federal Jobs

The Interior Department on Monday said it will eliminate 2,050 positions that are now paused under a court order, including hundreds of workers for the National Park Service, according to a legal filing.

The document, titled "Second Supplemental Declaration of Rachel Borra," is a sworn declaration from the Interior Department in a federal court case involving unions and federal agencies.

Borra, the Interior Department's chief human capital officer who oversees personnel management, including layoffs and compliance with court orders, explained in the filing that Interior stopped all RIF-related work affecting unionized employees while the court order remains active.

RIF stands for reduction in force.

The document was submitted Monday by the Justice Department to comply with an order issued by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California late Friday night.

Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Illston last week issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from carrying out layoffs of federal employees in certain unionized offices during the ongoing government shutdown or from enforcing any reduction-in-force notices already in place.

She expanded that order to include additional federal employees.

Illston, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, said the Trump administration is attempting to "fire line-level civilian employees during a government shutdown as a way to punish the opposing political party."

Illston added that "the harms suffered by federal employees affected by [layoffs] are having drastic and imminent public consequences."

The document reveals anticipated cuts at the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Geological Survey, and elsewhere across the Interior Department.

The plan would cut 2,050 jobs.

The Office of the Secretary shows the largest planned cuts with 690 positions, while the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Geological Survey follow with 474 and 335, respectively.

The National Park Service faces about 270 cuts, while the Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Reclamation show smaller impacts.

Kristen Brengel, vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, told Politico the move would "hurt natural and cultural resource protection and important construction and maintenance projects if it goes through."

The U.S. government shutdown has reached Day 20 — now officially the longest full shutdown in American history and the third longest overall, trailing only the 35-day 2018–19 partial shutdown and the 21-day 1995–96 impasse.

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