President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable meeting on antifa in the State Dining Room at the White House, in Washington. (AP Photo)The White House budget office said on Friday that mass firings of federal workers have begun, escalating pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown drags on.Russ Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, announced on X that “the RIFs have begun,” referring to reduction-in-force plans aimed at shrinking the federal workforce.The RIFs have begun.— Russ Vought (@russvought) October 10, 2025A spokesperson for the budget office described the layoffs as “substantial” but declined to provide further details.The Trump administration had signalled its intentions shortly before the shutdown began on October 1, instructing all federal agencies to submit reduction-in-force plans for review. The guidance said such cuts could apply to federal programmes whose funding lapsed during the shutdown, were otherwise unfunded, or were deemed “not consistent with the President’s priorities.”The move marks a sharp escalation from previous shutdown practices, in which federal employees are typically furloughed and reinstated once funding is restored.As the shutdown entered its tenth day, US House Speaker Mike Johnson held a press conference Friday, accusing Senate Democrats of prolonging the crisis and blocking efforts to reopen the government.“Democrats don’t appear to be in any rush to end this pain,” Johnson said. “This is beyond the pale, what Chuck Schumer is doing right now—it’s sickening. Millions of people are experiencing real pain because of these political games.”The remarks came after the Senate failed for the seventh time to pass a stopgap bill to restore funding. Friday also marked the first day federal workers across the US received partial paychecks.Johnson said the only path forward for the House to resume legislative work was for “Senate Democrats to turn the lights back on.”“We have done the work in the House,” he said. “They are the ones blocking the checks, not Republicans. All these questions should be directed to them, not to us.”Johnson also dismissed calls for a separate House bill to guarantee military pay during the shutdown, calling it redundant. “We have voted so many times to pay the troops. We already did it three weeks ago. The ball is in the court of Senate Democrats right now,” he said.