WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday refused to immediately block the Trump administration’s abrupt halt to funding of the nation’s largest private refugee resettlement program in a setback to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The federal judge said in a preliminary ruling that the National Treasury Employees Union likely must first bring their challenge to the Federal Labor Relations Authority.

The Trump administration can for now continue its mass firings of federal employees, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, rejecting a bid by a group of labor unions to halt President Donald Trump’s dramatic downsizing of the roughly 2.

The decision clears a roadblock for the new administration as it attempts sweeping changes to downsize the federal government.

A federal judge on Thursday refused to temporarily block the Trump administration’s mass layoff of federal workers while a lawsuit brought by five unions moves forward. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper found the unions must bring their claims under federal employment law rather than in district court.

A federal judge denied a request from unions to pause mass layoffs in the federal government on Thursday, a decision that comes as thousands of probationary workers are being laid off and marks the latest judgment in a slew of legal actions as Democrats and others fight Trump and cost-cutting czar Elon Musk in court.

The Trump administration's mass federal employee layoffs can continue after a judge on Thursday declined that he had jurisdiction to pause the actions. Why it matters: The judge referred the claims brought by labor unions,