The State Department may begin laying off hundreds of Washington, D.C.,-based employees as soon as this Friday, according to internal correspondence among staff that was shared with CBS News, amid an effort by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to streamline what he has called a “bloated” bureaucracy.

The precise timing of the cuts could be affected by a looming decision by the Supreme Court which could soon hand down a ruling on whether to leave in place a lower court’s order that temporarily paused government-wide layoffs. The Justice Department asked the high court earlier this month to lift the district court’s injunction and allow it to move forward with the administration’s plans for reductions in force, or layoffs.