Democratic lawmakers say agencies aren’t reinstating as many federal employees as they should be, as part of a recent spending deal that ended the longest government shutdown.

Employees who received reduction in force (RIF) notices before the government shutdown, but were on track to be officially separated from their agencies during the shutdown, say layoff protections included in the Nov. 12 continuing resolution mean they should get their jobs back.

Agencies, however, have followed a narrower interpretation, and have only reinstated federal employees who received RIF notices between Oct 1 and Nov. 12. Agencies told a federal court last week that they rescinded shutdown-era RIF notices for more than 3,600 employees.

The continuing resolution Congress passed on Nov. 12 states that “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.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is leading the push for more RIF rescissions, along with several of his Democratic colleagues.

Kaine was one of eight Democratic senators who broke ranks to pass the stopgap spending bill, only after Republicans agreed to include language that would protect federal employees from layoffs at least through Jan. 30, 2026. Kaine and his colleagues backed standalone legislation during the shutdown that would have also barred the Trump administration from moving ahead with its most recent wave of mass layoffs.

Kaine, along with Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), told Small Business Agency Administrator Kelly Loeffler that the agency is “unlawfully pursuing reductions in force,” and that dozens of recently laid-off employees the agency hasn’t reinstated “have a right to continue their employment.”

Federal News Network first reported last week that SBA told 77 recently laid-off employees this week that they could get their jobs back, but rescinded that offer a day later. An SBA spokesperson said in a statement that the agency “has determined that the most recent continuing resolution signed into law does not apply to any RIFs executed by the SBA.”

The senators said the continuing resolution — particularly Section 120 of the stopgap bill — placed a moratorium on RIFs involving federal employees, and that the “moratorium is broad, clear and unequivocal.”

“Consequently, SBA is without authority to maintain any RIFs that occurred during the lapse in appropriations or to initiate or otherwise carry out any new or previously noticed RIFs,” the senators wrote in a Nov. 20 letter.

The senators are directing SBA to reinstate the SBA employees and “return them to working status with full back pay.” The letter gives SBA until this Friday to comply with their request and provide an update to their offices.

House Small Business Committee Ranking Member Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) also sent a letter to SBA, expressing “serious concern” over the agency’s back-and-forth announcements about RIF rescissions.

Velázquez told Loeffler that “there was no justification for the change,” and that “you have deliberately sought to harm federal employees, who have dedicated their careers to helping entrepreneurs launch and grow their small businesses.”

“The erratic, cruel, and callous manner in which you handled this matter is unacceptable,” she wrote. “The law is clear, and SBA must restore these employees to their positions with back pay, effective immediately.”

Recently laid-off employees at the General Services Administration are calling on the agency to rescind their RIF notices, citing language in the recently passed continuing resolution. The American Foreign Service Association is urging the State Department to reverse RIF notices that went out this summer and took effect during the shutdown.

Recently RIF-ed Justice Department employees are also seeking reinstatement.

A former DOJ employee said about 30 recently laid-off staff from the agency’s Community Relations Service, Office for Access to Justice and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces are also seeking reinstatement. These are all offices DOJ is seeking to eliminate or consolidate, as part of its agency reorganization plans.

The recently separated employee, who worked for the Community Relations Service, said it’s clear lawmakers meant to cover as many federal employees as possible in the layoff protections.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

The former DOJ employee said several individuals seeking reinstatement have appealed to the Merit Systems Protection Board. The former employee, however, said some have not pursued an MSPB appeal because of the cost and the long wait to receive a ruling from the board.

Others are hopeful that a federal lawsuit in Boston challenging the DOJ’s reorganization plans could eventually lead to reinstatement. The lawsuit is challenging the department’s plans to eliminate the Community Relations Service.

On Monday, members of the Congressional Equality Caucus wrote that, without CRS, DOJ would be too understaffed to handle a rise in reported hate crimes in the U.S.

“With these changes, CRS would be unable to perform its statutorily required functions with just one staff member. The dismantling of CRS is not only unlawful, it is also particularly concerning given the rise in community unrest, where CRS’s peacebuilding and mediation services would play a vital role.”

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The Small Business Administration told dozens of recently laid-off employees this week that they could get their jobs back, but rescinded that offer a day later.

SBA sent reduction in force notices to 77 employees on Sept. 29, just before the government shutdown. On Monday, the agency’s top HR official told impacted staff that those RIF notices have been rescinded.

“This letter is to formally rescind the reduction in force (RIF) notice dated 9/29/25,” SBA’s Chief Human Capital Officer John Serpa told employees in a Nov. 18 notice obtained by Federal News Network. “You are being reinstated to your position of record with the Small Business Administration (SBA).”

The notice gave laid-off employees until Wednesday to return to the office, if they wished to have their jobs back. If not, employees were given the option to retire or resign.

But a day later, the same SBA official said the layoffs will remain in effect.

“Notwithstanding any prior communication from U.S. Small Business Administration, the Sept. 29, 2025 RIF notice and termination affecting your position will remain in effect,” Serpa wrote.

The RIF rescissions and their immediate recall stem from competing interpretations of verbiage in the shutdown-ending spending deal Congress passed last week, which also put the Trump administration’s latest round of governmentwide layoffs on hold for now.

An SBA spokesperson told Federal News Network on Tuesday evening that the agency “has determined that the most recent continuing resolution signed into law does not apply to any RIFs executed by the SBA.”

“Therefore, the RIF in question, affecting 77 positions, remains,” the spokesperson said.

The spending deal that Congress passed on Nov. 12 to end the government shutdown states that, “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.”

SBA’s layoffs were also not included in a federal judge’s preliminary injunction that blocked the Trump administration from proceeding with layoffs during the 43-day government shutdown.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston, in an Oct. 28 court proceeding, told parties in the lawsuit that her preliminary injunction “does not apply to RIF notices issued before the shutdown,” including those sent to SBA employees.

“The record may reflect that many employees of the Small Business Administration have been contacting the court. But it appears that the RIFs that they’re subject to went out on September 29 or 30, prior to the government shutdown. They would not be covered by this preliminary injunction,” Illston said.

SBA unveiled plans in March to cut its workforce by 43%. The agency expected to cut about 2,700 positions from its 6,500-employee workforce, mostly through voluntary separation incentives, as well as terminating pandemic-era and other term-appointment positions. SBA said it would only seek a limited number of layoffs through a nonvoluntary RIF.

SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said at the time that workforce cuts were needed to reduce “mission creep” and employees no longer needed to support pandemic-era stimulus programs.

An SBA employee told Federal News Network that union attorneys argued that SBA’s layoffs should be protected by the continuing resolution passed by Congress, because their separation dates would fall between Oct. 1 and Jan. 30.

Other unions have also made that case. The American Foreign Service Association said last week that its interpretation of the spending deal passed by Congress would block the State Department from moving forward with layoff notices it sent to more than 1,300 employees this summer.

The spending package passed by Congress states that between the date of enactment and Jan. 30, 2026, “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.”

“We understand that Congress intended for this language to apply to as many federal employees as possible, including those who received layoff notices from the State Department on July 11,” AFSA wrote. “Given that the department set the separation date for the July 11 layoffs as today, Nov. 10, those actions should not move forward. We have written to the department to urge them to halt these actions immediately.”

AFSA wrote in a follow-up post that it is awaiting details “on how the continuing resolution will be implemented and what it means for Foreign Service members affected by the July layoffs at State.”

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