Trump Administration Prepares for Next Wave of Layoffs as More Senior Employees Targeted
The Trump Administration prepares to accelerate federal layoffs, expanding the next round of job cuts to seasoned federal employees, after the first wave of firings targeted federal employees on probation.
Agencies have two weeks to submit plans for a reduction in force (RIF) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
In a new memo, OMB Director Russ Vought and Office of Personnel Management Acting Director Charles Ezell ordered agencies to focus on RIF and reorganization plans and submit them to OMB by March 13, 2025.
“Agencies should focus on the maximum elimination of functions that are not statutorily mandated while driving the highest-quality, most efficient delivery of their statutorily required functions,” said Director Vought and Acting Director Ezell in the memo.
Agencies are ordered to reduce “duplicative” or “non-critical” offices, consolidate “unnecessary” layers of management, automate routine tasks when applicable, and maximally reduce the use of outside consultants and contractors.
The memo also tells agencies to identify any provisions of collective bargaining agreements that would “inhibit” the RIFs, and their plans to renegotiate those contract provisions.
After plans are submitted, agencies have until April 14, 2025, to provide detailed org charts indicating which employees will be cut. Agencies must also share which components will be absorbing the work of eliminated offices.
Agencies Already Slashing Jobs
Several agencies are not waiting to get the layoffs going as the Elon Musk led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) pressures agencies to make deep cuts. Examples include the following:
The Department of Education offered buyouts of $25,000 to most of its workforce. Those buyouts offers expired Monday, March 3.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued RIF notices to all employees in the Office of Field Policy and Management at the General Schedule-13 level and below.
The General Services Administration (GSA) sent RIF notices to some employees in its Office of Human Resources Management and Office of Customer Experience. It also eliminated the 18F organization.
OPM itself sent RIF notices to Office of Procurement Operations and communications and privacy staff.
And while RIF notices have not been sent yet, President Trump said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be cutting 65 percent of staff. The EPA pushed back on that exact number, saying the President meant cutting 65 percent of wasteful spending.
DOGE Looks to Software to Speed Up Firings
Meanwhile, Wired reports that engineers at DOGE are working on updating longstanding software to automate the firings and allow for the firing of more workers at a faster pace.
The engineers are said to be editing the code of software called AutoRIF (auto reduction in force) that was developed and used by the Department of Defense decades ago.
