The White House’s Office of Management and Budget quietly sent a memo this week telling federal agencies to prepare “reduction-in-force” plans in case Congress lets funding lapse at the end of the fiscal year — a move that could turn a routine shutdown into permanent job cuts if lawmakers don’t act by Oct. 1, 2025. This is a sharp and deliberate escalation from past practice, and it makes clear the administration is serious about shrinking the federal government and forcing a political reckoning.
A reduction in force is not the same as a temporary furlough; it means eliminating positions permanently, not just pausing paychecks until appropriations are restored. The memo specifically tells agencies to identify programs whose discretionary funding would lapse and that are “not consistent with the President’s priorities,” which opens the door to deep and lasting reforms of bloated bureaucracies.
Let’s be honest: taxpayers have been carrying the bill for waste, duplication, and mission creep in Washington for decades, and far too many in Congress — led by Democrats — are playing political games instead of governing. Democrats are refusing a clean short-term funding bill unless their wish list is met, and the OMB’s hardline guidance is a necessary counterpunch to end the hostage-taking. Voters who demand limited government should welcome pressure that forces a choice between responsible spending and endless expansion.
Some inside the bureaucracy are panicking, calling the guidance cruel or threatening; that’s predictable from an entrenched workforce that benefits from status quo protection. The reality is that previous administrations have used contingency planning during funding lapses, and this administration is simply aiming to codify priorities and protect core functions while cutting out programs that can’t justify taxpayer dollars. The planning memo — and the push for agencies to have plans in place long before the deadline — is governance, not malice.
Legal and procedural safeguards will still apply: reductions in force follow established rules and notice periods, and agencies must preserve essential services while phasing changes. That’s why the memo asks agencies to submit detailed lapse plans and revises RIFs after appropriations are restored if needed — a measured approach to achieve a long-overdue trimming of federal bloat, not a chaotic purge.
Conservatives should cheer leaders who finally match words with action instead of endless capitulation to Washington’s appetite for more. If Democrats want to keep the government running without cuts, they can accept sensible spending restraint; if they prefer to protect pet programs with unlimited price tags, voters will remember who stood for taxpayers and who defended the gravy train.
This is a defining moment for accountability in Washington: either Congress funds a government that actually serves Americans efficiently, or it forces a reset that eliminates unnecessary positions and priorities. Hardworking Americans deserve a government that works, not one that grows richer for itself while asking citizens to pay more every year — and it’s time our leaders acted like it.
