WASHINGTON — White House Budget Director Russell Vought is planning to swiftly dismiss federal workers, a sign that Republicans will lean into hardball tactics to pressure Democrats to cave to end a government shutdown.

Vought told House lawmakers Wednesday that some federal agencies will move to terminate workers within one to two days, according to people familiar with the remarks, who requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that layoffs would happen within “two days, imminent, very soon” but declined to give any details about what agencies or positions would be targeted.

President Donald Trump and his team have moved quickly to capitalize on the shutdown to shrink the size of the federal government.

The administration earlier Wednesday halted $18 billion in federal funding for infrastructure projects in New York City, including for the Second Avenue Subway project and Hudson Tunnel Project.

Vought cited concerns over diversity and equity practices rather than the shutdown but the action directly hit constituents of Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of whom represent New York in Congress. He also said he will cut $8 billion from renewable energy projects in more than a dozen states that voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

Trump warned earlier this week he would use a funding lapse to target “Democrat things.”

Vought’s Office of Management and Budget has called for federal agencies to craft plans for mass firings of government workers beyond traditional furloughs, advancing its goal of slashing the federal bureaucracy. So far, agency shutdown plans have outlined any specific layoffs.

The shutdown gives Republicans an opening to “do some things that we would not otherwise be able to do, because we would never get Democrat votes for them,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox Business on Wednesday.

The White House “gets to decide now what services are essential, what programs and policies should be continued, and which would not be a priority,” he said.

Vice President JD Vance, however, downplayed plans to use the shutdown to slash services, saying Republicans don’t want to “lay anybody off” but said, without explaining his reasoning, that the administration could be forced to dismiss workers to save money during a shutdown. In previous shutdowns, many federal workers were furloughed without mass firings.

With federal agencies and departments closed down, Trump and his allies have pointed fingers at Democrats, with the idea that voters will blame them in the midterm elections next year.

“There’s necessarily going to be some pain because Senate Democrats refuse to reopen the government,” Vance told CBS News Wednesday. “What we do want to do is make sure that as much of the essential services of government remain functional as possible.”

Off ramp

A group of moderate Republicans and Democrats huddled on the Senate floor Wednesday to search for a way out of the shutdown that could offer face-saving concessions to both parties and allow the government to reopen, at least temporarily. Among the options the senators could be overheard discussing were a very short stopgap bill while an extension of expiring Obamacare subsidies is negotiated.

“I was throwing out some ideas that will give them room, give us room, and we all agree that we’ll continue talking,” Arizona Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego said. “No agreements were made.”

Democratic leaders have presented the confrontation as a clash over health-care coverage, particularly the impending rise of insurance premiums for millions of Americans unless lawmakers act to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies.

“We are going to be fighting everywhere, on TV stations like yours, in the social media, in picketing, in protesting, in emails,” Schumer told MSNBC. “And when the average American says, ‘Why the heck did I get a bill that raises my health care costs — doubles them?’ we’re going to be pointing out it’s the Republicans who did it.”

Their challenge is to keep the party behind that strategy; Republicans need only eight votes from the opposition to end debate and pass a so-called clean spending bill.

Three defected in the last vote Tuesday before the shutdown began and again on Wednesday when Republicans called another Senate vote: Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania supporting it, along with Angus King, a Maine independent who usually votes with Democrats.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was the lone Republican to vote no.

Republicans signaled confidence that they could soon pressure enough Democrats to vote to re-open the government.

“We’ve got some great Democrat colleagues that we’re talking to quietly. They don’t like what’s going on,” Senator Steve Daines, a Montana Republican, told CNBC on Wednesday. “We saw three Democrats break ranks. If we get five more we’ll end the shutdown.”

Vance said he would negotiate with Democrats on health care subsidies, but only after government funding is restored.

Pressure point

“As the political pressure builds and as we continue to have these negotiations, you’re going to see more and more Democrats come to this side,” Vance said on Fox News.

The government is likely to stay closed for at least a few days. The House is not in session this week. Senate leaders say they plan to send members home later Wednesday for the Yom Kippur Jewish holiday, returning Friday with plans to work through the weekend if a shutdown persists.

During Trump’s first term the government shut down twice, most notably when the president forced a funding lapse that began just before Christmas in 2018 by demanding money for his border wall. After five weeks, with his approval rating plummeting and pressure mounting over missed paychecks and delayed services, he backed down with little to show for it.

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With assistance from John Harney, Ken Tran, Hadriana Lowenkron, Emily Birnbaum, Caitlin Reilly and Alicia Diaz.

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