The Trump administration’s plans to shutter four small agencies are indefinitely on hold, following a court’s recent ruling.

A federal judge in Rhode Island issued a permanent injunction on Nov. 21, blocking the administration from taking any further action to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Minority Business and Development Agency, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and the Interagency Council on Homelessness.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March, eliminating these agencies — and three others — “to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” But attorneys general in 21 states sued the administration, arguing that these agency closures would have downstream effects on state-level operations.

The permanent injunction ordered by U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. prevents the four agencies from “taking any future action to implement, give effect to, comply with, or carry out the directives contained in the Reduction EO.”

McConnell determined that the Trump administration’s decision to conduct widespread layoffs, terminate grants and eliminate programs at these agencies “undermined their ability to perform functions mandated by statute.”

“By now, the question presented in this case is a familiar one: may the executive branch undertake such actions in circumvention of the will of the legislative branch? In recent months, this court — along with other courts across the country — has concluded that it may not. That answer remains the same here,” he wrote.

The agencies targeted for elimination are responsible for funding museums and libraries, mediating labor disputes, supporting minority-owned businesses, and preventing and ending homelessness.

Over the course of several months, the Trump administration fired, placed on administrative leave, or reassigned nearly all employees in these four agencies. The administration cancelled a wide range of grants to the agencies, and cancelled public programs and services that the agencies provided.

McConnell said these decisions left the agencies unable to carry out their statutorily mandated functions, and unable to spend their congressionally appropriated funds.

The court issued a preliminary injunction in May. The Trump administration appealed the district court’s preliminary injunction, but dropped its appeal on Nov. 21, following the judge’s permanent injunction. Federal News Network has reached out to the White House and the Justice Department for comment.

The Supreme Court and federal appeals courts have mostly allowed the Trump administration to proceed with plans to shutter agencies and conduct mass layoffs across the federal workforce.

The Trump administration argued that a preliminary injunction in this case prevented agencies from implementing the president’s priorities.  McConnell, however, said he ruled in favor of the states, given a “plethora of injuries” that would arise, if the court did not intervene.

States told the court that closing IMLS would force the closure of public libraries, force them to implement hiring freezes and stop providing services that support literacy and learning. State universities said they would be forced to lay off employees, eliminate student programming and default on contracts without continued funding for MBDA.

In other cases, states said some of their agencies and programs are at risk of work stoppages and negotiation impasses, without FMCS around to resolve labor disputes. States also told the court they would lose expert assistance on how to reduce homelessness without the Interagency Council on Homelessness.

“All this to say: the injuries alleged are to the States themselves and are far more than merely economic or speculative,” McConnell wrote.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James called the ruling a “major victory in our ongoing work to defend important services.”

“The federal government’s illegal attack on these agencies threatened vital resources for workers, small businesses, and the most vulnerable in our communities,” James said.

The American Library Association said the court’s decision “restores everything that the executive order tried to take away.”

“Convincing a federal judge that shuttering a supposedly obscure agency would have an immediate and devastating impact on millions of Americans is no small feat,” ALA President Sam Helmick said. “Libraries also strengthen local economies by supporting jobseekers, small businesses and community learning. Protecting these resources matters.”

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© AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

The IRS, ahead of an upcoming reorganization of its tech office, is putting its IT staff to the test.

The agency, in an email sent Monday, directed its IT workforce to complete a “technical skills assessment.”

IRS Chief Information Officer Kaschit Pandya told employees that the assessment is part of a broader effort to gauge the team’s technical proficiency, ahead of an “IRS IT organizational realignment.”

“Over time, hiring practices and role assignments have evolved, and we want to ensure our technical workforce is accurately aligned with the work ahead. The assessment will help establish a baseline understanding of our collective strengths and areas for development,” Pandya told staff in an email sent Monday.

Pandya’s office is leading the technical skills assessment, in coordination with the Treasury Department, the IRS human capital office and the Office of Personnel Management.

“I want to emphasize that this is a baseline assessment, not a performance rating. Your individual-level results will not affect your pay or grade,” he told staff. “I know this comes during a very busy and uncertain time, and I deeply appreciate your partnership.”

Pandya told staff that a “limited group” of IRS IT employees in technical roles — including developers, testers and artificial intelligence/machine learning engineers have been invited to complete the test. He told staff that, as of Monday, about 100 employees were directed to complete the assessment.

On Friday, an IRS IT employee told Federal News Network that several hundred employees have now completed the assessment, and that it took employees about 90 minutes to complete it.

According to the employee, Pandya told staff in an all-hands meeting on Friday that one of the agency’s goals is to rely more on full-time IT employees, and less on outside contractors. He said during that meeting that IRS IT currently has about 6,000 IT employees and about 4,500 contractors.

“It doesn’t make sense, considering all the RIFs, firings and decisions that ignored expertise,” the IRS IT employee said.

The IRS has lost more than 25% of its workforce so far this year, largely through voluntary separation incentives. Pandya told staff in an email this summer that the agency needs to “reset and reassess,” in part because more than 2,000 IT employees have separated from the IRS since January. The IRS had about 8,500 IT employees at the start of fiscal 2025.

The agency also sent mass layoff notices to its employees during the government shutdown, but has rescinded those notices as required by Congress in its spending deal that ended the shutdown.

The Treasury Department sent reduction-in-force notices to 1,377 employees during the recent government shutdown — as part of a broader RIF that targeted about 4,000 federal workers. Court documents show the IRS employees received the vast majority of those RIF notices, and that they disproportionately impacted human resources and IT personnel at the IRS.

The technical assessment is also in line with goals set by Treasury CIO and Department of Government Efficiency representative Sam Corcos, who recently said IRS IT layoffs were “painful,” but necessary for the agency’s upcoming tech reorganization.

In a recent podcast interview, Corcos said much of his time as Treasury CIO has been focused on projects at the IRS, and that the agency’s IT workforce doesn’t have the necessary skills to deliver on its long-term modernization goals.

“We’re in the process of recomposing the engineering org in the IRS, which is we have too many people within the engineering function who are not engineers,” he said. “The goal is, let’s find who our engineers are. Let’s move the people who are not into some other function, and then we’re going to bring in more engineers.”

Corcos estimated that there are about 100 to 200 IRS IT employees currently at the organization that he trusts to carry out his reorganization plans.

“When you go in and you talk to people, a lot of the people, especially an engineer, the engineers on the team, they want to solve this problem. They don’t feel good about the fact that this thing has been ongoing for 35 years and will probably never get done. They actually want to solve these problems.”

IT employees at several agencies have gone through evaluations and assessments during the Trump administration. Tech employees at the General Services Administration were also interviewed and questioned about their skills and expertise by GSA and DOGE leadership. GSA later downsized its Technology Transformation Services office and shuttered its 18F tech shop.

In March, the IRS removed 50 of its IT leaders from their jobs and put them on paid administrative leave. Corcos defended that decision, saying the IRS “has had poor technical leadership for roughly 40 years.”

Corcos said those former IRS IT leaders pushed back on DOGE’s audit of government contracts. The agency, he added, spent an “astounding” amount on cybersecurity contracts, but former leaders resisted cutting and scaling back any of those contracts.

“The initial leadership team just said, ‘Everything is critical, you can’t cut anything. In fact, we need more,’” Corcos said. “And when we swapped them out for people who were more in the weeds, who knew what these things were, we found actually quite a lot that we could cut.”

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© AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

The Education Department, in the latest step of the Trump administration’s plan to dismantle the agency, has begun transferring its employees to other federal agencies.

The department said Tuesday that it signed six new interagency agreements to transfer some of its programs and employees to the departments of Labor, Interior, State and Health and Human Services, in order “to break up the federal education bureaucracy.”

Education Secretary Linda McMahon told employees in an all-hands meeting that the department is soft-launching plans to reassign its work to other parts of the federal government, before calling on Congress to permanently shutter the agency.

McMahon, in a transcript obtained by Federal News Network, told employees that Education is currently transferring its employees out to other agencies “on a temporary basis.”

That temporary reorganization, she said, will give the Education Department a proof-of-concept to show lawmakers. At that point, the Trump administration will call on Congress to pass legislation that will officially shut down the department and codify the reorganization.

The department, she added, has already transferred 13 employees to the Labor Department, “so that we can be more efficient and economical,” and that more interagency agreements will soon be signed to transfer other staff.

McMahon said the Education Department’s budget still covers those 13 detailed employees, and that the Education and Labor Departments are currently “co-managing” them.

McMahon told employees that she has spoken to members of Congress about this reorganization plan, and is planning to move programs out of the Education Department “on a temporary basis” for now. But in the end, she said the Trump administration’s goal is to find enough votes in Congress “to close the Department of Education.”

“If it has worked, and we have proven that this is the best way to do it, then we’ll ask Congress to codify this and make it a permanent move out of the Department of Education into whatever agency that program has gone into,” McMahon told employees.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March, calling for the dismantling of the Education Department. McMahon told lawmakers during her confirmation hearing that the Education Department is set up by Congress, and “it clearly cannot be shut down without it.”

The department, so far this year, has lost about half of its employees through mass layoffs and voluntary separation incentives.

McMahon didn’t mention immediate layoffs or workforce reductions as part of this phase of the reorganization plans, but acknowledged shutdown-era layoffs could return in early 2026.

McMahon said the Education Department has cancelled reduction-in-force notices it sent to about 20% of its remaining workforce during the 43-day government shutdown.

The continuing resolution passed by Congress and signed by Trump put those RIF notices on hold at least through Jan. 30, 2026.

But beyond that point, McMahon acknowledged that RIFs may return.

“Moving forward, that creates unrest. It creates uncertainty for all of you, and I understand that,” she told employees. “I know how difficult it is to make decisions that, from my perspective, are going to affect people’s lives and their livelihood and their teams and what they’re working on. And it is not an easy decision.”

McMahon said a majority of the public didn’t support plans to close the Education Department, when the Trump administration first announced its plans. However, she said the majority of the public does support shifting these programs to other agencies to make them more efficient.

“When the goal will be to have congressional votes to close the Department of Education, we are not closing education. We’re lifting education up, and each of us in this room has a chance to be part of history, and that this is part of our legacy,” she said.

The six interagency agreements will move billions of dollars in grant programs to other agencies. The Labor Department, in particular, will oversee much of the federal funding that will go to K-12 schools, including grants for schools serving low-income communities.

The department says states and schools shouldn’t expect any disruptions to their funding, except that federal funds will now come from the Labor Department.

“The funding will not change. That may flow through a different account or a different building,” McMahon told employees.

The reorganization would move two of the Education Department’s largest programs, the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and Office of Postsecondary Education, to the Labor Department.

However, the Education Department will still retain student loan oversight and accreditation of colleges to ensure they are eligible to receive students’ federal financial aid.

Critics of the reorganization say that the agencies taking on Education programs and personnel don’t have expertise in these policy areas, and that the transfer could disrupt some of its essential programs.

“That national mission is weakened when its core functions are scattered across other federal or state agencies that are not equipped or positioned to provide the same support and services as ED staff,” AFGE Local 252 President Rachel Gittleman said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story

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© AP Photo/Ben Curtis

Interview transcript: 

Terry Gerton How’s AUSA going for you?

Sean Gainey Fantastic, getting the opportunity to tell the Space and Missile Defense Command story, visit a lot with our industry partners and connect with a lot of old friends, so great few days so far.

Terry Gerton Speaking of the SMDC story, there’s been some changes for SMDC lately. You’ve picked up some new organizations. Tell us about the transfer of the Army Air and Missile Defense Commands (AAMDCs).

Sean Gainey Yeah, a lot of great opportunities inside of Space and Missile Defense Command with the Army’s Transformation Initiative. So as the Army transitioned to the Western Hemisphere Command, [that] presented an opportunity for 32nd Army Air and Missiles Defense Command that was previously under the Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) to move under Space and Missile Defense Command, and also it presented an opportunity for 263rd Air and Missile Defense Command, that was previously under [U.S. Army North (ARNORTH)] doing the homeland defense mission, set to move under SMDC. So now what you have is you have the Senior Army Air and Missile Defense Expertise Headquarters, now the higher headquarters for two of our homeland-based air and missile defense commands, one with a focus on the homeland and the other with a global force mission focus, particularly on the CENTCOM [area of responsibility], but with the opportunity to focus on the homeland. So therefore, putting the priority, the Secretary of War’s priority on the homeland with the alignment of these forces under Space and Defense Command.

Terry Gerton Is that a shift in focus and mission for those subordinate units now?

Sean Gainey The 263rd always had the homeland defense focus. They currently defend the National Capital Region mission set. So they will continue to focus on the homeland mission set. The 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command has had a focus in the CENTCOM AOR for the past several years based off of the mission sets in protecting our soldiers abroad. They’ve always maintained a global mission. Their service retained forces. So this gives Space and Missile Defense Command the opportunity to leverage 32nd in multiple capacities globally, also in the homeland.

Terry Gerton And you also mentioned this is really sort of a realignment for space and missile defense to a more homeland-based defense mission.

Sean Gainey Yeah, so it adds the warfighter component inside of our command. Our previous focus was, we’ve always had a focus on defending the homeland with our ground-based missile defense system, our [Ground-Based Interceptors] primarily in Alaska area. And so now this addition of the two AAMDCs and the redesignation of SMDC as the Army Service Component Command and for [Ground-Based Midcourse Defense] to now Army Service Component Command for all of AMD under the NORTHCOM commander right now.

Terry Gerton And what’s the timeline for this? Is it complete? Is it just underway in terms of transformation?

Sean Gainey First of October was the effective date, so we’ve moved out. We’ve been coordinating with these supporting elements for the past few months and we reached a point of 1 October is where we wanted to determine initial operating capability and we’ve done that and we’ll continue to progress on to full capability as we move forward in the future.

Terry Gerton It’s really an increase in span of control for you as the SMDC commander. Are you able to reinforce your staff to cover the additional responsibilities?

Sean Gainey It’s difficult because as we took on the additional elements, there are no additional resources provided, but we reorganized and we optimized inside of our command to meet this new mission set. For Space and Missile Defense Command in this organization, with the inherent expertise of space and missile defense that we have in the organization, we were properly suited and properly aligned to accept these two AAMDCs, and as the commander of SMDC, previously commanded a AAMDC and I have several senior leaders in my organization that have previously served in an Army Air and Missile Defense Command. My command sergeant major served as my command sergeant major in the Army Air and Missile Defense Command, so we understand the roles and responsibilities of an Army Air and Missile Defense Command so it was a smooth transition taking higher headquarters of those AAMDC.

Terry Gerton Tell us a little bit more about the shift to a primacy of focus on homeland defense. The Army’s always been fighting over there, right, to keep some distance between the enemy and the homeland. How is that changing how you’re organized, how you are focused, what the plans are?

Sean Gainey Yeah, so for Space Missile Defense Command, we’ve always had that homeland defense focus as I highlighted earlier. We defend the homeland with our GBI’s from an intercontinental ballistic missile and we’re the only ones that do that. And so having that previous focus and understanding with our role with NORTHCOM as Army Service Component Command for GMD at the time and now for [Air and Missile Defense (AMD)], working closely with 263rd who’s had the homeland defense mission inside of Space and Missile Defense Command, we assist in the role of that inside of protecting the [National Capital Region] with capability development. So we’ve always had a homeland focus, but we’ve also had a global mission. So our Army-Space forces have deployed globally in almost every [combatant command] over the past several years. And so recently, they’ve also started to do some of the homeland mission set. So for us, it’s a natural evolution as the administration shifts and as the Department of War shifts their focus. For us, it’s a easy shift. We see the homeland as priority number one and we will accommodate and adjust accordingly to put more emphasis on something we’ve previously been doing.

Terry Gerton So far we’ve talked mostly about missile defense, but space is the first word in your command. How is the Army engaging in a space mission?

Sean Gainey Yeah, so I’m often asked that question, and believe it or not, the Army is the largest consumer of space, and so to be able to protect our equities in space, to be able to enable our formations to fight in a current and future conflict where precision fires, being able to move and communicate are heavily reliant on space capabilities, it only makes sense to have those capabilities inside of the Army to enhance what we’re doing. And also as the Army moves into close fight, having space in the close fight and close support is critically important to enable our forces on the battlefield.

Terry Gerton Then it’s essentially a joint mission. So how do you integrate with Space Command and U.S. Space Force?

Sean Gainey Yeah, I’m very fortunate as the commander of SMDC, I am also the Army Service Component Command to SPACECOM. So we have the opportunity to work closely with the SPACECOM staff and with the other components from a joint perspective and really work through the equities of how do we provide that close space support and able to observe the Space Force as they do orbital warfare. So Space Command has the ability to, across all of the components and all the services, integrate, synchronize and properly use services capabilities to enhance the overall space mission set.

Terry Gerton And the Army’s creating a mission occupational specialty for space. Tell us how that’s going.

Sean Gainey We are: the 40D, and we’re very excited about that. So right now what the Army has been doing, you highlighted the Army having space. So we’ve been doing that on a borrowed manpower process. So we have been taking soldiers from the Air Defense branch, Signal Corps branch, Military Intelligence branch, bringing them into our space formations, teaching them how to do space operations and then put them in formations and we have three years to do this before they go back to their basic branch. So it’s a very difficult construct to be able to build, train and ready sustained forces and to build a non-professional, non-commissioned officer corps. So what we’ve done is we’ve taken the 40D and so now what we’ll do on October 26, we’re in the process of assessing soldiers into 40D, so now we have space experts that will do the space occupational moving forward and creating a professional Army space [Military Occupational Specialty (MOS)], to eventually create an Army space branch to move forward with, because of the future fight and the current fight, the reliance on space is so significant. Having the trained MOS and a space branch inside of the Army, now is the right time to do that.

Terry Gerton It’s a real shift in focus and a real challenge to build out a new MOS, but it seems to align with the Army’s air and missile defense strategy. So tell us about what that new strategy is for 2040.

Sean Gainey Yeah, we’re excited inside. So as you can see, there’s a lot going on in Space and Missile Defense Command.

Terry Gerton You’re not bored down there.

Sean Gainey No, we are not. And we are excited because the Army leadership has really invested in this command. And so when you look at things that the chief of staff of the Army, the secretary of the Army are constantly talking about continuous transformation, transformation in contact, that’s happening inside of Space and Missile Defense Command now. And strategy is an evolution of taking previous strategies and visions and look into the future. So we are in the probably the most significant missile fight that we’ve been in globally with what’s going on in Ukraine, what’s going on in Israel. We’re seeing the number of threat platforms, whether it’s ballistic missiles, cruise missiles or unmanned systems, drones, that we’ve ever seen in any conflict. And so looking at the lessons learned and looking at the complexities of how the threat is now employing, not in one salvo, but mixed salvos to create several complexities for the operator. We felt it was time to take the good work that’s been done in the past and move it forward with the integration of these lessons, learn how we’re going to fight in the future and what’s our path to fight in the future going to be, with the future systems and capabilities to get after this complex threat. So we’ve completed the strategy. We’re now working its way up to the chief of staff of the Army and secretary of the Army for their final approval. We believe that will happen in November time frame, but we’ve been working very closely with the force moving this forward and we’re excited to get that out to the larger force.

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A Senate-passed spending plan to end the longest government shutdown includes bills that would keep the Department of Veterans Affairs funded through the rest of the fiscal year.

The fiscal 2026 spending bill “minibus” passed by the Senate on Monday gives the VA $133 billion in discretionary spending — about a 3% increase compared to last year.

The Senate also approved FY 2026 funding for the Agriculture Department, military construction and the legislative branch.

Lawmakers have included several provisions to ensure the VA doesn’t shed too many employees, as part of its ongoing agency reorganization plans.

The VA previously planned to eliminate 83,000 positions this year. Those plans involved cutting 20,000 clinical staff from the Veterans Health Administration, including nurses and other frontline medical staff.

The department, however, scrapped plans for a department-wide reduction in force, and instead planned to eliminate 30,000 positions by the end of fiscal 2025, largely through attrition.

The spending bill gives the VA 90 days to provide the House and Senate appropriations committees with a staffing model “that will ensure timely, high-quality delivery of healthcare, benefits, and other services.”

“The department is directed to maintain staffing levels to facilitate the department’s own goals,” lawmakers wrote.

On the health care side of VA’s operations, those targets include veterans waiting no longer than 20 days for primary and mental health care appointments, and no more than 28 days for specialty care appointments. The Veterans Benefits Administration must also ensure that it has enough employees to adjudicate benefits claims within 125 days.

The spending bill specifically bars the VA from reducing staffing levels, hours of operation or services at the Veterans Crisis Line or any of its other suicide prevention programs.

Former VCL employees told the Senate VA Committee this summer that hotline employees are often overwhelmed juggling multiple incoming texts and web chats.

Lawmakers wrote that the Veterans Crisis Line “is often the first place a veteran will turn to in a moment of crisis,” and that they are “concerned about the continued functionality, accessibility, and performance of the VCL.”

The VA must also provide the House and Senate appropriations committees with an update on VCL staffing levels and capacity to respond to incoming calls. The report must also include call answer rates, average wait times and referrals to suicide prevention coordinators.

The spending bill also prohibits the VA from terminating any contract over $10 million, unless the VA provides advanced notice to the House and Senate committees, explaining how the department plans to replace the services in the contract targeted for elimination, and whether ending the contract would result in any change in the VA’s staffing levels.

VA gets billions to resume EHR rollout

The Senate-passed spending bill would give the VA $3.4 billion to resume the rollout of its new Electronic Health Record.

The funds will go toward deploying the new EHR to 13 new locations in 2026, as well as “optimization” of the six sites already using the new EHR.

The VA paused its EHR deployment schedule in April 2023, and used the “reset” period to address problems at sites already using the system.

The department currently plans to roll out the new EHR to 27 sites in 2027, but it’s still far away from fully deploying the new system to about 170 VA medical centers across the country.

The Defense Department completed its own rollout of the same health record system last year.

Lawmakers are holding onto nearly a third of the EHR modernization funds until July 2026 and will only release the money once the VA has demonstrated that the project is back on track.

Congress will release 30% of the EHR modernization funds to the VA once it has certified that it has seen “at least four consecutive successful site deployments without any incidents of a delay in care or patient harm.”

To receive these funds, the VA must also give Congress an updated lifecycle cost estimate for the new EHR, a facility-by-facility deployment schedule, projected staffing levels and whether sites already using the new EHR are meeting baseline productivity targets.

VA’s EHR deployment plans for fiscal 2026 focus on medical facilities in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana — although go-lives are also planned in Kentucky and Alaska that year.

Lawmakers wrote that they are “encouraged by deployment activities” at some of the 2026 EHR sites. However, they wrote that “Congress remains vigilant of potential usability problems that have led to or contributed to instances of patient harm and reduced employee productivity.”

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© AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais