WASHINGTON – The Trump administration on Wednesday directed heads of federal departments and agencies to prepare for “large-scale reductions in force” by March 13, as President Donald Trump shifts to a more aggressive phase of federal workforce reductions.
The Personnel Management and Management and Budget offices also issued a memo instructing federal departments to eliminate and consolidate redundant positions, reduce their property footprints, and develop agency reorganization plans.
“The federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt,” the memo from OMB Director Russ Vought and OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell states. “At the same time, it is not delivering results for the American people.” Instead, tax dollars are being diverted to fund wasteful and ineffective programs that benefit radical interest groups while harming hardworking Americans.”
So far, mass firings of federal employees have primarily focused on eliminating recently hired or promoted probationary workers in an effort to drastically reduce the federal workforce, led by billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency. The first round of firings occurred after all federal employees were offered buyouts, which more than 75,000 workers accepted.
According to the memo, the newly ordered reductions will target federal employees with full civil service protection, not just probationary workers.
Exemptions apply to U.S. Postal Service employees, positions deemed necessary for law enforcement, national security, border and immigration obligations, and military personnel in the armed forces.
“We wish to keep everyone who is doing an essential job 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 directs federal departments to submit new organizational charts for 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 mentioned conversations with Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, who Trump claims is considering cutting 65% of the EPA’s workforce.
“We are going to speed up the process at the same time,” Trump said of the impending cuts. “A lot of people that were not doing their job (or) they were just obstructionists.”
The new round of federal layoffs follows an executive order signed by Trump on February 11. DOGE layoffs across federal departments appear to be in the tens of thousands, but the White House has refused to provide USA TODAY with a government-wide total despite repeated requests over several weeks.
