A deal to end the longest government shutdown, expected to pass the House later today and head to President Donald Trump’s desk, rescinds layoff notices sent to thousands of federal employees in October.

The spending plan doesn’t bring back jobs for former federal employees who received reduction-in-force (RIF) notices earlier this year and who have officially separated from the government. But it does mean their severance payments, which have been on hold since the start of the shutdown, will resume.

Former federal employees say the nearly month-and-a-half freeze on severance payments has been a less visible part of the shutdown’s financial impact, and added to the emotional toll felt by those who lost their jobs under the Trump administration.

The severance payment freeze has had a major impact on former employees at the Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS sent RIF notices to 10,000 employees in April, and another 10,000 HHS employees left the department through voluntary separation incentives. Last month, HHS sought to lay off nearly 950 additional employees, but those RIF notices are expected to be rescinded.

Thomas Nagy, Jr, HHS chief human capital officer and deputy assistant secretary for human resources, told former employees in an email obtained by Federal News Network that, “due to the current lapse in appropriations, you will not be receiving any further severance payments until funding is restored.”

Nagy told laid-off workers that they may see a “temporary debt” on their leave and earnings statement, because severance payments have been stopped, retroactive to the beginning of the lapse in appropriations.

He added that the department’s payroll provider, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, “will initiate no collections actions, and that no funds will be withdrawn from your bank account,” and that HHS will resume payments “as soon as it is legally and operationally possible to do so.”

‘There is nobody we can ask’ 

A laid-off HHS employee’s latest leave and earnings statement, shared with Federal News Network, does not include her severance payment. Instead, it shows that she owes the agency nearly $4,000.

The employee, who requested anonymity to avoid retaliation, said no funds had been withdrawn from her account, but said the notice raised more questions than it answered.

“I have no idea if this means this is actually going to be collected from me at some point, or if this is just an error,” she said.

Aside from boilerplate emails, the former HHS employee said she received no further communication from the department. She said she’s not sure who else to contact at HHS, because her entire supervisory chain also received RIF notices, or were reassigned to different agencies within HHS.

“I don’t actually know anybody who I can ask anymore,” the former employee said, “There is nobody we can ask. That’s really upsetting.”

Federal News Network has heard from several other former HHS employees who saw negative amounts on their latest leave and earnings statements. None received any notice asking them to repay any amount.

HHS Press Secretary Emily Hilliard told Federal News Network in a statement that “severance payments may only continue for employees in organizations exempt from furlough based on their funding source.”

To comply with the Anti-Deficiency Act, agencies have suspended severance payments for the duration of the shutdown. It’s not immediately clear how soon those severance payments will resume, once the shutdown ends.

The Office of Personnel Management, in updated guidance sent ahead of the shutdown, told agencies that “no funds may be authorized for severance payments for days during the lapse until an appropriation is enacted.”

A Nov. 5 memo from the HHS Office of Human Capital Management, sent to Food and Drug Administration managers and supervisors, states that HHS “has suspended all severance payments to former employees due to the current lapse in appropriations.”

The memo, obtained by Federal News Network, states that the suspension of severance payments started for the pay period ending Nov. 1, and “affects all HHS organizations.”

“Due to funding constraints across multiple HHS organizations, HHS Office of Human Resources directed a department-wide suspension of all severance payments through the end of the appropriations lapse,” the memo states. “Former employees will receive retroactive severance payments once the appropriations lapse ends.”

The memo directed human resources staff at other HHS components to notify all former employees about the hold on severance payments by Nov. 7.

More than 1.4 million federal employees missed two full paychecks, and received a partial paycheck during the 43-day government shutdown. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the shutdown will cost the federal government at least $7 billion, and up to $14 billion.

Shutdown RIFs will be rescinded

More than 4,000 federal employees across the government received RIF notices in mid-October, following guidance from the White House that encouraged agencies to move forward with layoffs in the event of a funding lapse. But those RIF notices will be reversed, as part of the deal to end the government shutdown.

The bill states that between the date of enactment and Jan. 30, 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.”

The Senate passed the shutdown-ending spending plan on Monday, and the House is expected to pass the bill on Wednesday. The bill includes a continuing resolution that will keep many agencies funded at current spending levels until Jan. 30, 2026.

Most, but not all, of those RIF actions have been on hold because of a preliminary injunction granted by a district court judge last month. Federal unions sued the Trump administration over the layoffs, alleging that they violated the Administrative Procedure Act. Unlike most lawsuits, the Trump administration did not appeal the district court’s ruling.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that the administration “is very hopeful that this shutdown is going to come to an end.”

“President Trump looks forward to finally ending this devastating Democrat shutdown with his signature, and we hope that signing will take place later tonight,” Leavitt said.

Even with the rollback of the shutdown layoffs, Leavitt said the Trump administration has still taken major steps to “reduce the size of our federal bureaucracy.”

The Partnership for Public Service estimates that more than 211,000 employees have left the federal workforce this year, either through layoffs or voluntary incentives

“We’ve done a lot of great work on that front, and we will continue to. But obviously, the President’s main priority was to reopen the federal government and get people back to work, and that’s what this deal accomplishes,” Leavitt said.

The post Shutdown-ending deal stops severance freeze for laid-off federal employees first appeared on Federal News Network.

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Interview transcript:

Eric White: In your experience of federal lawsuits pertaining to back pay during shutdowns, this one is going on and on pace to perhaps even be longer than the longest one in history just because we’ve really seen no movement or headway. What are we in for here and what have been your thoughts as you’ve seen this shutdown play out?

Heidi Burakiewicz: I wish I could answer the question about what we’re in for as people have been saying over and over since January 20th, this is unprecedented times and that continues here. It looks as though the shutdown has the potential to last as long as the last one, which lasted for 35 days, from December 2018 through 2019 and as far as sort of what we have in store for us, it’s unclear. The administration is threatening to not pay federal workers who are furloughed. They are using this as an opportunity to RIF and remove thousands of federal employees just because they work on programs that this administration does not endorse. Once again, federal workers are under attack and it’s unnecessary.

Eric White: Yeah, the threats of not giving back pay, I was curious on what effect that could potentially have for any future litigation. We’ve heard the president’s tweets mentioned in several federal workforce-related lawsuits that are currently ongoing between federal employee unions and things of that nature. Could that be invoked when someone like yourself or a class action lawsuit in the future going for back pay during the shutdown? What effect does that have on it or does it not have an effect at all? Am I overthinking it?

Heidi Burakiewicz: Well, during in 2019, Congress amended the Anti-Deficiency Act specifically to confirm that employees, whether they are accepted and working during the shutdown or whether they’re furloughed, that they will be paid at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriation ends. So to me, the law is quite clear that these employees are all entitled to back pay once the lapse of appropriation ends. So we’ll have to wait and see if the Trump administration actually follows through with its threats to not pay those workers who have been furloughed. And then of course, I envision that there’ll be legal action that will be taken if that is to take place.

Eric White: And so on that notice, like I said, would the Anti-Deficiency Act be the main focal point of an argument for any future lawsuit since the administration seems to have just ignored it and including taking it down from certain websites and everything else. I’m just wondering what any possible defense could be if the law is the law. Is it just a matter of trying to wait these folks out and hope that not as many will come forward looking for back pay?

Heidi Burakiewicz: I’m not sure what this administration thinks the defense would be. The law, as I said, it’s pretty clear to me that federal employees are guaranteed pay as soon as possible after the lapse in appropriation ends. I can’t speak for this administration and why they would choose not to follow that clear-cut law.

Eric White: Gotcha. All right. We’re speaking with Heidi Burakiewicz. She’s a partner with Burakiewicz and DePriest. On the reductions-in-force, that is something that is also unprecedented. Rifing in agency, I know that that’s not pertaining to the lawsuits that you worked on in the past, but how much more difficult does it make it to endure being either furloughed or accepted work and then, all of a sudden, you also get a rift notice in the mail. I can’t imagine that that’s going to go unnoticed as well in the in the courts, right?

Heidi Burakiewicz: Yeah, absolutely. There’s already litigation that’s been filed. For example, in the Northern District of California to stop the reductions-in-force that the administration is pushing forward during the shutdown. AFGE and the democracy groups, Democracy Defenders, Democracy Forward, are at the forefront of that as they have been with so much to protect federal workers. There is currently a temporary restraining order in place, I believe, that they filed for preliminary injunction yesterday to keep these illegal RIFs from moving forward. And I just can’t emphasize, there was an article, we’ll get the quote not right, but there was an article in the Washington Post several months ago talking about how the administration purposely wanted to basically torture the federal workforce and they’re using this shutdown as an opportunity to further do this. All of the attacks on the federal workforce are just not necessary, threatening not to pay the furloughed workers, rifing employees during the shutdown. Absolutely, even if there is a lapse in appropriations, it is not necessary for the Trump administration to attack the workforce the way they are.

Eric White: Any suggestions for employees that are going to be looking to enact their right to go to court after all this is said and done? I don’t know if there is any, you obviously save the RIF notice if you have it, I guess. But is there anything that former or current federal employees should do if they are looking to go that direction once the shutdown has ended and things get back to normal?

Heidi Burakiewicz: Well, I hope that the RIFs do not take place, that the unions who have been just instrumental in protecting the federal workforce and really trying to save democracy, I hope that their lawsuits are successful and that the RIFs that the administration has tried to put forward during the shutdown, that they’re able to stop them. If not, I would recommend any federal worker who has a RIF notice that is going forward. There’s the Federal Workers Legal Defense Network, which is providing an army of volunteer attorneys who are providing help to federal workers who need it, such as people who are experiencing these RIFs. So absolutely reach out, try to get help and challenge these illegal RIFs that are happening.

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