"It's very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs," she said. "It has a human cost ... that cannot be tolerated."

She said the evidence suggests that OMB has "taken advantage of the lapse in government spending and government functioning to assume that all bets are off."

Illston blasted the federal government's actions as "arbitrary and capricious," criticizing the many errors she said have been identified in the layoff process over the last few days.

HHS, for instance, acknowledged in a court filing that the agency had mistakenly fired more than 900 staffers.

Thank you Dominique!!