# Reduction in Force A **reduction in force (RIF)** is the statutory procedure for eliminating federal *positions*, as distinct from firing individual *employees* (5 U.S.C. § 3502; 5 C.F.R. Part 351). An agency sets a "competitive area," and retention within it is decided by four factors in order: tenure group, veterans' preference, length of service, and performance. Displaced employees may have "bump and retreat" rights into other positions. They can appeal to the [[Merit Systems Protection Board]], but only on whether the rules were followed, never on whether the position should have been cut. That last point is what makes the RIF the tool of choice for downsizing. It sidesteps the individual due process the [[Civil Service Reform Act of 1978]] built, because no one is being disciplined. A job is simply being abolished. ## The 2025–2026 wave - **Sequence.** The [[Deferred Resignation Program]] came first, then the mass termination of [[Probationary Employees]], then RIFs. [[Executive Order 14210]] (February 2025) told agencies to prepare "large-scale reductions in force," prioritizing functions not required by statute. - **The courts.** A district court in San Francisco blocked the RIF plans government-wide in May 2025. On **July 8, 2025** the Supreme Court stayed that injunction in *Trump v. AFGE*, clearing the way for agency plans to proceed. - **The shutdown RIFs.** During the October–November 2025 shutdown, agencies issued RIF notices to furloughed staff. The deal that ended the shutdown rescinded those RIFs and barred new ones through January 30, 2026. In December 2025 the same district court ordered hundreds of RIFs finalized during the shutdown reversed as likely violating the deal. - **The tally.** OPM reports executive-branch employment down about **281,000 (≈12%)** from January 2025 to March 2026, to its lowest level since the mid-1960s. RIFs, buyouts and probationary firings together produced that drop ([[Federal Workforce Structure Tree]]). ## Why it matters here A RIF is how an agency can be emptied without being abolished. The vault's clearest example is the Department of Education: abolishing it takes 60 Senate votes, while emptying it takes a RIF and some interagency agreements ([[How a Federal Agency Is Dismantled]]). The legal questions the courts kept asking were about scale and whether Congress had authorized it, not about the RIF procedure, which remains lawful at every step. ## See also - [[Federal Workforce Structure Tree]] · [[How a Federal Agency Is Dismantled]] · [[DOGE and Federal Workforce]] - [[Deferred Resignation Program]] · [[Probationary Employees]] · [[Executive Order 14210]] · [[Career Transition Assistance Program]] - [[Civil Service Reform Act of 1978]] · [[Merit Systems Protection Board]] · [[OPM]]