The U.S. Department of the Interior this week revealed intentions to lay off over 2,000 federal employees as the government shutdown approaches its fourth week.

From the National Park Service (NPS) and the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to the United States Geological Survey and Bureau of Land Management, the layoffs would impact 2,050 federal employees, according to a federal court document filed on Monday, Oct. 20, in the Northern District of California in San Francisco.

This move by the Department of the Interior (DOI) comes after the Trump administration made good on repeated threats this month to fire thousands of federal workers, with agencies sending "reduction in force" (RIF) notifications to those employees.

As a condition of fully reopening the federal government, Democrats on Tuesday, Oct. 21, continued to push for expanded health care spending, including an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies and the restoration of Medicaid benefits. But Republicans argued the government should reopen before health care talks begin.

As of Tuesday, Oct. 21, about 750,000 federal workers have been furloughed during the government shutdown and ordered not to report to work. The ongoing impasse has not only left some workers across federal agencies without paychecks, but it'll likely cost thousands of others their jobs, the DOI revealed in its Monday, Oct. 20, court filing.

The estimated number of RIFs for the federal employees is higher than what the Interior Department revealed in a previous court filing after a group of people from unions sued the Trump administration. According to the filing, all planned layoffs had already been in motion.

Here's how many federal workers are slated to lose their jobs in expected layoffs − now on hold under a court order from Judge Susan Illston, who had demanded more information from the executive departments regarding the pending reductions after previously accusing the Trump administration of acting illegally by carrying out the cuts.

How many federal employees will possibly see layoffs?

According to the court filing, 2,050 positions would be axed. Employees in the communications department and IT divisions face the highest risk, with 770 jobs being eliminated, according to the Oct. 20 court document.

The Interior Department employs close to 70,000 people, including scientists and resource-management professionals, in eleven technical bureaus. Nearly three dozen agencies impacted by Illston’s order have indicated their intention to comply with it, though only the DOI has revealed that it was slated to move forward with RIFs imminently, the Government Executive reported.

That means the proposed cuts would nix about 3% of the DOI's workforce.

  • Bureau of Land Management: 474 positions (about 5% of its workforce)
  • Bureau of Ocean Energy Management: 12 positions (about 2% of its workforce)
  • Bureau of Reclamation: 30 positions (about .05% of its workforce)
  • Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement: 7 positions (about .08% of its workforce)
  • National Park Service: 272 positions (2% of its workforce)
  • Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement: 7 positions in its Office of Planning, Budget and Analysis (about 2% of its workforce).
  • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: 143 positions (2% of its workforce).
  • U.S. Geological Survey: 335 employees (about 5% of its workforce)
  • Office of the Secretary: 770 positions eliminated (about 9% of its workforce)

Contributing: Bart Jansen, Rebecca Morin & Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy/ USA TODAY

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Interior Department reveals plans to cut over 2,000 jobs. See affected agencies.

Reporting by Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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