On Sunday, Vice President Vance issued a stark warning that reductions in the federal workforce are expected to intensify as the government remains in a state of shutdown.

During an appearance on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Vance was questioned by host Maria Bartiromo about President Trump’s characterization of the shutdown as an “opportunity” and the potential extent of the workforce reductions.

“The longer it goes on, Maria, the more significant they’re going to be,” Vance said. “If you remember, we went nine days before announcing any significant layoffs.

He further elaborated, “The President has been actively seeking ways to reopen the government and has attempted to collaborate with Democrats to achieve this. However, if the situation continues, the cuts will inevitably become more severe.”

Vance noted that while the impending reductions will likely be “painful,” he attributed the situation to Democrats. They have stated they won’t support the Republican plan to reopen the government unless a resolution is reached regarding the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, which are due to expire at year-end, potentially leading to increased insurance premiums.

“To be clear, some of these cuts are going to be painful,” Vance said. “This is not a situation that we relish. This is not something that we’re looking forward to, but the Democrats have dealt us a pretty difficult set of cards.”

Hundreds of thousands of workers have been furloughed since the shutdown began at the beginning of the month, and the Trump administration, in a court filing on Friday, said more than 4,000 federal employees would soon be fired because of the shutdown.