The Trump administration Wednesday ordered heads of federal departments and agencies to prepare to initiate “large-scale reductions in force” by March 13 as President Donald Trump shifts to a more aggressive phase of cutting the federal workforce.
A memo sent by the Personnel Management and Management and Budget offices has also instructed federal departments to eliminate and consolidate duplicative positions, reduce their property footprints and produce reorganization plans for their agencies. “The federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt,” the memo from OMB Director Russ Vought and OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell says. “At the same time, it is not producing results for the American public. Instead, tax dollars are being siphoned off to fund unproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hardworking American citizens.” Mass firings of federal workers thus far have focused primarily on eliminating recently hired or promoted probationary workers in making drastic cuts to the federal workforce, an effort guided by billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency. This first round of firings came after buyouts were offered to all federal employees, which more than 75,000 workers accepted. The newly ordered reductions, however, are expected to target federal employees with full civil service protection, not just probationary workers, according to the memo.
Exemptions include U.S. Postal Service workers, positions deemed necessary for law enforcement, national security and border and immigration obligations, as well as military personnel in the armed forces. “We wish to keep everyone who is doing a job that is essential and doing that job well,” Musk said Wednesday while attending Trump’s first Cabinet meeting, an unusual move for an aide in an unusual position of power. “But if the job is not essential, well, they obviously should not be on the public payroll.”
The memo instructs federal departments to submit new organizational charts of positions by April 14 as well as any proposed relocations of agency offices or headquarters from Washington to “less-costly parts of the country.” During his Cabinet meeting, Trump referenced conversations with Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, who Trump said is exploring cutting 65% of the EPA workforce.
“We’re going to speed up the process, too, at the same time,” Trump said of upcoming cuts. “A lot of people that weren’t doing their job (or) they were just obstructionists.”
