Washington – On Thursday, the Trump administration intensified its efforts to reduce the size of federal workforce – the nation’s biggest employer – by ordering agencies layoff nearly all probationary workers who had not yet received civil service protection. This could affect hundreds of thousands of employees.
Workers at certain agencies were also warned of upcoming large-scale cuts.
The Office of Personnel Management (also known as the Human Resources Department of the federal government) made the decision regarding probationary employees, who have generally less than one year of experience. A person who was familiar with the situation confirmed it under condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak publicly about it.
The personnel office was not immune. According to a second person who spoke under condition of anonymity, dozens of probationary OPM employees were informed on a group call on Thursday afternoon that they would be dismissed. They were then told to leave the building in a half hour.
This is expected to be the beginning of a wave of layoffs. The President signed an executive directive on Tuesday, which instructed agency heads to prepare for “large-scale force reductions.”
Elon Musk, who the president gave wide latitude to cut government spending through his Department of Government Efficiency , called for the elimination of entire agencies on Thursday.
Musk, in a videocall at the World Governments Summit held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates said: “I believe we need to delete whole agencies rather than leave many of them behind.” “If we do not remove the roots of weed then it is easy for the plant to grow back.”
Everett Kelley is the president of American Federation of Government employees, which represents federal workers. He said that the administration “abused the probation status of workers” to conduct a “politically driven mass firing spree,” targeting workers not because of their performance but because they had been hired before Trump became president.
The order issued on Thursday was a continuation of the previous directives from OPM. Earlier this week, OPM told agencies that probationary employees would be terminated if they did not meet high standards. Uncertain is the number of workers currently on probation. OPM data shows that as of March 2024 220,000 workers were less than one year old. This is the latest data.
This week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Department of Education employees were among those fired.
According to a union representing agency workers including civil rights workers and special education specialists, as well as student aid officials, at least 39 employees were terminated from the Education Department Wednesday.
Patty Murray (a Washington State Democrat) said that the layoffs affected researchers at the Department of Veterans Affairs who worked on cancer treatment, addiction to opioids, prosthetics, and burn pit exposure.
Murray stated in a press release that VA researchers from her state were told by Trump and Elon to cease their research “not because it isn’t urgently needed, but simply because they have fired these researchers at their whim.”
The VA announced on Thursday it had laid off over 1,000 probationary employees who were not “mission critical”. This move will save the VA more than $98,000,000 per year and VA will direct all those resources to health care, benefits, and services for VA recipients.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a group which defends government employees, says the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the Agriculture Department would be particularly hard hit by laying off probationary staff because it struggles to recruit inspectors who are required to be at every slaughterhouse at all times.
About 2.4 million civilian federal workers are employed by the government, excluding military personnel and post office employees. About 20% of federal workers live in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. However, over 80% of them are located outside of the Capitol Region.
Layoffs will not result in significant deficit reductions. The Congressional Budget Office examined the issue and found that the government spends $271 billion annually on compensating federal civilian workers. About 60% of this total goes to workers employed in the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs.
The government, in theory could cut all these workers and still have a deficit exceeding $1 trillion. This would continue to increase as the tax revenue is needed to keep pace with rising costs for Social Security and Medicare.
Elaine Kamarck is a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution. She said that firing probationary employees was flawed, because it targeted younger workers.
“Baby boomers are retiring left and right, so the people you’d like to keep are most likely the ones who are currently on probation,” said Kamarck. He worked in the Democratic administration of former President Bill Clinton, when over eight years, 426,000 federal positions were eliminated in a deliberate effort aimed at re-inventing the government. “They are younger and have better skills and that’s what you want.”
was Mr. Trump’s first attempt to reduce the workforce. It offered people a payment until September 30th if they agreed that they would quit. The White House reported that 75,000 people had signed up for the program, and on Wednesday a federal court cleared a legal hurdle.
The number of workers that accepted the offer fell short of the target set by the administration, and Mr. Trump made it clear that he would be taking further action.
A person familiar with the matter, who spoke under condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to speak about it, said that employees at the National Science Foundation and Housing and Urban Development Department would soon be facing large reductions. In some cases, the number of staff could even be halved.
In the order signed by President Obama on Tuesday, it was stipulated that functions of government not required by law will be prioritised for reductions and hiring will be limited. Except for public safety functions, there can only be one new employee for every four that leave. New hires will also need to be approved by a representative from the DOGE. This will increase the influence of Musk and his team.
Musk has been praised by Mr. Trump for his efforts to reduce federal spending.
The Republican President has also criticized federal workers harshly, particularly those who wish to work remotely. However, his administration is working simultaneously to reduce federal office space, and to terminate leases for all government offices.
Trump stated on Monday that “nobody will work from home”. They’re going to be out playing tennis, golf, and other sports. “They’re not working.”
