“There are unfortunate consequences to a government shutdown, and the federal government is not receiving any cash at the moment, and so the Office of Management and Budget has been tasked with looking over the receipts and looking over the budget of the entire federal bureaucracy, and, as the vice president said, determining what needs to continue to go out the door, and what can we continue to keep running, and what unfortunately is going to have to come to an end,” Leavitt told reporters. “So those decisions are being made, and, unfortunately, layoffs are very likely.”

However, Vance gave a slightly murkier answer when asked why the administration is planning to fire federal workers rather than simply furlough them, as was done in past shutdowns.

“We haven’t made any final decisions about what we’re going to do with certain workers. What we’re saying is that we might have to take extraordinary steps,” he said. “The longer this goes on, we’re going to have to take extraordinary measures to ensure the People’s Government operates, again, not perfectly — because it’s not going to operate perfectly in the midst of a shutdown — but operates as well as it possibly can.”

“I think that the Democrats, if they’re so worried about the effect this is having on the American people — and they should be — what they should do is reopen the government, not complain about how we respond,” Vance continued.

Vance spent two years representing Ohio in the Senate before entering office in January. President Donald Trump has tasked Vance with leading shutdown negotiations alongside congressional Republican leaders.

The vice president told reporters on Wednesday that he has spoken to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. He added that the Democrats he talked to fall into two categories: “those who are negotiating in good faith” and those “who say, ‘Give us everything we want or we’re going to keep the government shut down.’”

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that 750,000 federal workers would be furloughed under the shutdown. That is down from 850,000 out of 2.1 million nonpostal federal employees who were furloughed in previous shutdowns and reflects the layoffs and early retirement programs initiated by Trump this year to reduce the size of the federal workforce.

On a call with House Republicans on Wednesday, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought echoed Leavitt’s comments. He said the reduction in force would happen within the next one to two days, a source confirmed to the Washington Examiner.

The government shutdown began on Tuesday at midnight after Congress failed to pass a seven-week continuing resolution to punt the funding deadline until Nov. 21. Without a spending deal, several federal buildings and agencies are closed, with more to shutter over the next two weeks.

A GOP lawmaker told the Washington Examiner that Vought warned that certain programs, such as the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program, may pause without a spending deal. Under the Department of Agriculture’s shutdown guidance, WIC will continue to operate “subject to the availability of funding.”

Vought also mentioned that last paydays for some agencies, such as the military, are on Wednesday, according to reports. He also announced on X that nearly $8 billion in Green New Deal funding for energy projects would be canceled, with the funding spanning 16 states.

Layoffs for federal agencies are already underway as White House officials warn lawmakers about the consequences of a shutdown. 

The Patent and Trademark Office announced on Wednesday that it would permanently close its Rocky Mountain Regional Outreach Office in Denver, Colorado. The office’s commissioner, Valencia Wallace, also reportedly sent a letter to agency staff on Wednesday morning outlining plans to lay off 1% of its 14,000-strong workforce.

The federal workforce has been the subject of many government shake-ups since the Trump administration took office, with the impending layoffs from the shutdown the latest in a monthslong upheaval of the federal government. 

“These are all things that the Trump administration has been doing since January 20, the mass firing of federal workers,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said during a press conference on Wednesday when asked about the reduction in force, WIC, and energy funding.

“The Trump administration has been killing jobs. This is a job-killing administration. Job creation is down, but you know what’s up? Cost. The promise to lower costs on Day One. Costs aren’t going down, costs are going up,” he added.

Republicans spoke to the impact on the federal workforce during a press conference with House and Senate leaders on Wednesday. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Trump is trying to “mitigate the damage as much as possible,” but noted that the longer the shutdown continues, “the more pain will be inflicted, because it is inevitable when the government shuts down.”

However, Trump told reporters on Tuesday that Democrats would be taking a risk by shutting down the government, arguing that his administration can take actions during the shutdown that are “irreversible.”

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS ASK FOR PAY TO BE WITHHELD DURING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

“Like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” Trump said.

“You all know Russell Vought. He’s become very popular recently because he can trim the budget to a level that you couldn’t do any other way,” he added. “So, they’re taking a risk by having a shutdown. Because of the shutdown, we can do things medically and other ways, including benefits, we can cut large numbers of people out. We don’t want to do that, but we don’t want fraud, waste, and abuse.”

Hailey Bullis and Samantha-Jo Roth contributed to this report.