Russ Vought expects number of federal firings to get ‘much higher’ as shutdown continues

White House budget chief Russell Vought said Wednesday that he expects the number of federal employees laid off to get “much higher” in the coming days.

Vought, who is the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has led an effort to lay off thousands of nonessential federal workers during the ongoing government shutdown. In a court filing Tuesday night, an OMB official said that more than 4,000 government employees had already received reduction in force (RIF) notices.

However, Vought said on “The Charlie Kirk Show” that the number of people laid off under the RIF process is likely to grow.

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“We’re definitely talking thousands of people,” Vought said. “Much of the reporting has been based on kind of court snapshots which they have articulated as in the 4,000 number of people. But that’s just a snapshot, and I think it’ll get much higher. And we’re going to keep those RIFs rolling throughout the shutdown. We think it’s important to stay on offense for the American taxpayer.” 

He continued, “We want to be very aggressive where we can be in shuttering the bureaucracy — not just the funding, but the bureaucracy — that we now have an opportunity to do that. And that’s where we’re going to be looking for our opportunities.”

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Vought added that he believes that the total number could reach close to 10,000 people.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and OMB for comment.

Shortly after Vought’s comments aired, a federal judge in San Francisco blocked the Trump administration from continuing government furloughs, granting a temporary restraining order sought by labor unions that argued layoffs were unlawful during the ongoing government shutdown.

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“The evidence suggests OMB and OPM have taken advantage of the lapse in government spending–function to assume all bets are off and that the laws don’t apply to them,” U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston said.

She added that the administration’s actions were “illegal, in excess of authority and arbitrary and capricious.”

Fox News’ Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.