Judge orders federal agencies to reverse layoffs. Some in Tri-Cities could get jobs back

A federal judge in California has ordered six agencies to reinstate the employment of probationary employees who were fired by the Trump administration, including employees in Eastern Washington.

The agencies include Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Interior, Energy, Defense and Treasury departments, with the potential for the judge to add more agencies to the order.

Probationary employees are those on probation — usually for a year, but sometimes two years or longer — after being hired or promoted at federal agencies.

“Today’s order is a win for the employees that will be reinstated and the rule of law, but this case is not over,” Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said Thursday after the ruling by Judge William H. Alsup of the Northern District of California U.S. Court.

Employees could again be laid off if lawful procedures are followed.

The state of Washington joined the lawsuit filed initially on behalf of a coalition of labor groups and other impacted organizations.

Washington has more than 12 million acres of federal land managed by agencies thrown into chaos by efforts to fire federal employees en masse, according to the Washington state Office of the Attorney General.

The firings damage Washington residents in multiple ways, including the reliability of the state’s energy supply, wildfire and forest management, services to veterans and support for small businesses, according to the office.

Alsup found that firing probationary federal employees was illegal because the Office of Personnel Management had no authority to order the terminations.

The judge not only ordered probationary employees to be reinstated, but forbade the Office of Personnel Management from giving any guidance to federal agencies on which employees should be terminated, according to the Washington state Office of Attorney General.

The Department of Justice is expected to appeal.

More federal job cuts

The probationary employees are just a portion of federal employees losing their jobs under the Trump administration.

Other employees volunteered for layoffs with pay promised through the end of the fiscal year in September.

And more rounds of layoffs are expected.

Thursday was the deadline set by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and U.S. Office of Personnel Management for federal agency heads to submit reduction-in-force and reorganization plans to further significantly cut the federal workforce.

The memo requiring plans for RIFs said the federal government is “costly, inefficient and deeply in debt” and that “tax dollars are being siphoned off to fund unproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hard-working American citizens.”

The memo gave suggestions such as renegotiating provisions of collective bargaining agreements and eliminating functions that are not mandated by law, plus firing underperforming employees and reducing staff through attrition.

Tri-Cities area federal employees

Federal agencies have released little or no information on how many probationary jobs were cut in Eastern Washington, but Washington state and Oregon’s U.S. senators, all Democrats, and others have discussed what they know.

More than a dozen probationary employees at the Department of Energy Tri-Cities offices overseeing work at the Hanford nuclear site or Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland are believed to have lost jobs last month, according to the Washington Congressional delegation.

The Washington State Standard reported that an estimated 125 to 200 Bonneville Power Administration employees who were probationary were laid off, although the Trump administration later moved to rehire some employees.

Much of the electricity used in the Tri-Cities area is purchased wholesale from BPA and delivered on BPA transmission lines.

Eight or nine workers at Washington State University Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Prosser reportedly were let go, along with a few workers at the Mid-Columbia River and Central Washington National Wildlife Refuge Complexes, according to industry groups and others. The headquarters for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuges is in Burbank, just south of Pasco.

Veterans Affairs released a few probationary staff members at the Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center in Walla Walla, according to the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin.

The Walla Walla District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has not had any layoffs of probationary employees, it said Friday.

This story was originally published March 13, 2025 at 7:04 PM.