The website Government Executive reports on the draconian cuts that Trump imposed on federal agencies. These cuts were made without regard to the contribution, experience, or value of employees. Some agencies were destroyed, such as foreign aid. Foreign aid always had bipartisan support, yet Republicans in Congress remained silent as Trump and his sidekick Elon Musk cancelled programs that saved lives.
The devastating cuts in highly qualified career civil servants will be felt for many years. Their loss will not make the federal government more efficient. Understaffing will make it less effective. You will notice that a particular target of job cuts was any office engaged in civil rights protections.
In his confirmation hearings to be director of the Office of Management and Budget, one of the most powerful jobs in the federal government, Russell Vought made clear that he wanted to cripple the workforce.
He said:
“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work … because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.”
“We want to put them in trauma.”
Russell Vought organized Project 2025 while working at the rightwing Heritage Foundaion. He is not only a libertarian who wants to disembowel the “deep state,” he describes himself as a Christian nationalist. Vought’s goal–and Trump’s as well–is not to streamline the federal government but to gut it.
Government Executive reports:
The Supreme Court earlier this year has allowed the Trump administration to resume mass reductions in force, though large swaths of the federal government are once again blocked from issuing layoffs under a new court order.
Many agencies have sent out RIF notices in the previous 10 months, with a new wave commencing during the government shutdown. These layoffs are separate from the mass firings of probationary employees in the early months of the administration, which led to the removal of at least 25,000 workers. See our tracker of those firings here.
An executive order and subsequent guidance in February from the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management called for the “maximum elimination” of federal agency functions not required by law. As a starting point for the cuts, OMB and OPM said, agencies should focus on employees whose jobs are not required in statute and who face furloughs in government shutdowns—typically around one-third of the federal workforce, or 700,000 employees.
Several agencies have eliminated offices wholesale and slashed their regional offices across the country. The administration laid off around 4,000 people on Oct. 10 across seven agencies. The cuts followed through on a threat from President Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought to inflict pain on the federal workforce as a consequence of the government shutdown.
Those RIFs, and forthcoming cuts Trump and Vought have promised, are now largely paused under a temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge in California. Her order now extends to agency components with employees in the American Federation of Government Employees; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers; the National Federation of Federal Employees; the National Association of Government Employees; the National Treasury Employees Union; and the Service Employees International Union.
Here are the departments and agencies where Government Executive has confirmed RIFs have taken place or are about to occur. In some cases, the plans are in flux and subject to change. We will update as we learn more. More in-depth reporting is linked where available.
Agriculture Department: USDA is planning to dramatically slash its headquarters workforce through relocations into new regional hubs and, potentially, layoffs. Most employees will be given the option to either take a reassignment to one of the new hubs the department is standing up or separate from federal service. As the department cuts leases and functions across the country, regional staff will also be impacted, though some will have the opportunity to relocate to the new hubs. USDA will offload one of its two Washington headquarters buildings and consolidate dozens of additional sites. All told, 2,600 Washington-based are expected to be relocated. The department has shed 15,000 employees through its separation incentives.
Commerce Department: Commerce was originally seeking to cut its workforce by 20%, or nearly 10,000 employees, by using attrition, incentives and other measures to get to that level without RIFs. In October, however, Commerce sent RIF notices to 600 employees, including those at the Patent and Trademark Office, Census Bureau and Minority Business Development Agency. Those cuts are currently paused pending the temporary restraining order.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: CFPB first issued RIFs for approximately 1,500 personnel, roughly 88% of its workforce on April 17, while announcing 50% cuts to its inspection operations of financial services companies. Employees were told they would be locked out by 6 p.m. on April 18 and would be separated from federal service by June 16, barring qualifications for other available positions. A federal judge on April 18 paused the RIFs at CFPB, which led to the layoff notices being officially rescinded. An appeals court subsequently ruled that the RIFs could proceed, but paused their implementation while a union sought an en banc hearing before the entire appellate panel.
Defense Department: Defense said it would use RIFs or use other incentives to drive 5% to 8% of its civilian workforce, or as many as 61,000 employees, out of government. The department announced in September it successfully hit that target using various incentives.
Education Department: Education has laid off one-thirds of its workforce, or about 1,300 employees. The notices went out on March 11 and the department closed its offices on March 12 for the day. Education previously offered buyouts of up to $25,000 to most of its employees, who had until March 3 at 11:59 p.m. to accept the offer. About 300 employees accepted those and combined with other voluntary separations, Education’s total workforce was set to be about half the size it was before Trump took office. In October, Education sent layoff notices to an additional 465 employees, which are currently paused pending the temporary restraining order.
Environmental Protection Agency: Staff in the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights and Regional Environmental Justice Divisions on April 21 were informed that a RIF will take effect on July 31.
The RIFs began to take shape in March when Administrator Lee Zeldin moved to eliminate the environmental justice office and divisions as well as the Office of Inclusive Excellence. Prior to their shutterings, EPA said it had put about 170 employees in those offices on administrative leave.
In July, EPA announced it was eliminating its Office of Research and Development, leading to a RIF of potentially hundreds of employees. All told, the agency said it has slashed its workforce from 16,155 when Trump took office to 12,448. In October, the agency said it would lay off another 30 employees, which are currently paused pending the temporary restraining order.
Federal Trade Commission: FTC dismissed around a dozen employees on Feb. 28, impacting its Bureau of Competition, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Office of Public Affairs and Office of Technology.
General Services Administration: GSA has sent RIF notices to some employees in its Office of Human Resources Management and Office of Customer Experience and, initially, issued severe cuts to its Public Building Service.
- GSA has also eliminated 18F, and laid off virtually all employees there.
- On March 3, GSA began widespread RIFs focused on its Public Buildings Service. Many regions across the country were impacted. The agency subsequently canceled most of those layoffs, however, and brought the employees back to work.
Health and Human Services Department: HHS has eliminated 20,000 jobs from its workforce of 82,000, the department announced earlier this year. It sent RIF notices to 10,000 employees and used attrition for the remaining 10,000. As part of those initial layoffs, the Food and Drug Administration shed 3,500 employees, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut about 2,400 employees and NIH has sent RIF notices to more than 1,200 workers. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services laid off 300 staff.
Eliminated offices included those tracking cancer rates among firefighters, providing veterinary care caring for lab animals, managing the nation’s network of health centers that provide care to 31 million Americans, training new drug reviewers, collecting data on opioid on abuse and leading teams researching infectious diseases, among many others. Following the Supreme Court decision, HHS proceeded removing most of those impacted by RIFs on July 14. Employees at CDC, FDA’s tobacco office and Head Start remain on the rolls due to an injunction in a separate case brought by a group of states.
HHS, primarily at CDC, has brought back some employees deemed essential to carry out mission-critical functions.
The department’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization laid off at least 25 people at HHS headquarters and different components such as the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention on April 7. The cuts leave only executive director Shannon Jackson remaining in the office.
HHS shuttered six regional offices in its Office of General Counsel, bringing the agency from 10 OGC offices down to four. Those will be located in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Kansas City, Mo., and Denver. Impacted staff—about 200 of the 300 in the regional offices—were laid off, according to two employees affected by the changes and informed of the department’s plans.
In October, HHS laid off around another 1,000 employees. The haphazard nature of the RIFs led to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reverse more than half of the original 1,300 notices it originally sent. Additional cuts were made at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Health Resources and Services Administration, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health and Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. Those cuts are currently paused pending the temporary restraining order.
Homeland Security Department: DHS officials issued RIF notices to all employees in its Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, as well as its Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman and Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman on March 21. The roughly 150 people in the CRCL office have been placed on administrative leave, pending their terminations, as have the approximately 40 employees at CIS Ombudsman and more than 120 employees at OIDO. The department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis was planning to reduce its staffing by around 75%, cutting its workforce from some 1,000 full-time employees to 275, but as of July 10, those plans have been paused.
In October, DHS initiated RIFs for 176 employees at its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. A spokesperson said the cuts, currently paused by the TRO, would be “getting CISA back on mission” after the Biden administration led it astray.
Housing and Urban Development Department: HUD has issued RIF notices to all employees in the Office of Field Policy and Management at the General Schedule-13 level and below, according to a memo obtained by Government Executive. The employees were set to be terminated May 18. In October, HUD sent RIF notices to 442 employees in its Office of Community Planning and Development, the regional offices of its Office of Federal Housing and Equal Opportunity and its Public and Indian Housing office. Those cuts are currently paused pending the temporary restraining order.
Interior Department: DOI is planning sweeping reductions to its administrative and support function workforce and has consolidated related offices away from component agencies. Interior has folded areas such as IT, communications, finance, human resources and contracting into the central part of the department, rather than components such as the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service and others maintaining their own cadres of staff to provide those services. That will be followed by widespread and significant reductions in force to employees in those offices, leading in some cases to 50% cuts to the relevant workforces. The consolidations began in early May and RIFs were expected to follow in the coming weeks, but those actions were held up in federal court. Thousands of layoffs were expected.
In October, Interior laid out with specificity where 2,000 RIFs were planned across its bureaus. Significantly more cuts were expected, though those details remained under wraps. Most of those cuts are currently paused pending the TRO, though Interior left the door open to proceeding with some of the cuts not impacted by the court’s order.
Labor Department: DOL had planned layoffs at the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, but on Aug. 12, it reversed those reduction in force notices. A department spokesperson said that DOL reduced its total workforce by 20% through voluntary separation initiatives and attrition.
NASA: NASA began sending RIF notices to employees on March 10. In an email to staff, acting Administrator Janet Petro told staff it was a “phased reduction in force,” meaning more layoffs are expected in the coming days and weeks. She called the cuts “difficult adjustments” impacting “valued members of our team,” but said the agency was viewing the changes as “an opportunity to reshape our workforce.” NASA has so far laid off only around 20 employees by closing the Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy, the Office of the Chief Scientist and employees working on diversity issues. NASA’s RIF and reorganization plan is still forthcoming, Petro said, though senior officials have told employees they are hopeful to avoid additional layoffs even as they pursue significant workforce reductions.
Office of Personnel Management: OPM, which is spearheading the workforce reduction effort across government, has sent RIF notices to at least its Office of Procurement Operations and communications staff. Around 80 people were let go. In late February, OPM virtually eliminated its Human Capital Data Management and Modernization office. Several dozen employees received RIF notices and only 10 were spared. OPM has also laid off employees from its privacy and Freedom of Information Act office. OPM has also eliminated its Chief Technology Office. The agency also issued RIFs to the entirety of its Congressional, Legislative & Intergovernmental Affairs office staff on April 16.
Peace Corps: The Peace Corps is expected shed 50% of its domestic staff in mid-May, according to two employees briefed on the plans. Some offices will see as many as three-quarters of its staff laid off. The agency has around 900 U.S.-based direct hire positions, though given the existing vacancies around 300 cuts are expected to occur between RIFs and incentivized departures. Employees said recruiting efforts, training programs, support functions and security and health services for for deployed volunteers will also struggle to continue, employees said.
Small Business Administration: SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler told employees in March the agency would shed 2,700 of its 6,500 employees. In April, it issued RIF notices to large number of employees in its COVID-19 loan servicing center. It subsequently laid off employees in the customer service center for disaster victims. One impacted employee said impacted communities will now either get rushed off the phone or not get assisted at all, while also facing longer wait times. “The ones being hurt by these cuts are the ones that truly do need assistance,” the employee said.
Social Security Administration: SSA has shuttered two offices—its Office of Transformation and Office of Civil Rights—and initially placed those workers on administration leave. SSA’s former acting Administrator Leland Dudek has said he planned to lay off 7,000 employees in total, according to three employees familiar with the plans.
State Department: After much delay, the State Department on July 11 laid off around 1,350 employees through a mass RIF. All told, State is expected to shed around 3,000 workers as part of its reorganization that will see more than 300 offices eliminated or consolidated. Around 1,100 civil service staff and 250 foreign service officers were be impacted. Impacted offices included the Bureau of Cyberspace and Policy, Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, Bureau of International Organization Affairs, Bureau of Energy Resources, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Multilateral Trade Affairs office, Office of Agriculture Policy and others. All employees at the refugee resettlement office and the refugee processing center were subject to RIFs.
Transportation Department: Secretary Sean Duffy said in a department town hall that reductions in force would take place at the end of May, though that timeline was pushed back by original the court injunction. The number of employees who will be laid off depends on how many workers participate in the second round of the deferred resignation program. Those cuts have yet to materialize.
Treasury Department:
- The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reported on July 18 that the tax agency’s workforce has decreased by 25% with nearly 25,390 employees taking deferred resignation, another departure incentive or otherwise separating and 294 workers being terminated in RIFs. Layoffs affected the Office of Civil Rights and Compliance, Taxpayer Experience Office and Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Taxpayer Services. The Trump administration was expected to slash as many as 20,000 jobs from IRS.
- Around April 8, the Bureau of Fiscal Service began notifying employees who service bonds for investors that they would be shuttering their offices and outsourcing that work. Hundreds of employees were part of the reductions.
- In October, Treasury sent RIF notices to 1,446 employees. Much those were focused on the Internal Revenue Service and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, though the cuts are paused pending the resolution of the temporary restraining order.
U.S. Agency for International Development: In the midst of a court battle, nearly all staffers at USAID were laid off under reduction in force procedures on either July 1 or Sept. 2. The Trump administration is seeking to largely fold the agency into the State Department, which will hire a few hundred of the thousands of affected employees.
Veterans Affairs Department: VA initially suggested it would slash its workforce to fiscal 2019 levels, which would mark a reduction of more than 80,000 employees. RIFs were expected to begin this summer. VA Secretary Doug Collins announced in July, however, that the department would no longer pursue widespread layoffs and instead cut the department by 30,000 employeesthrough attrition and separation incentives. Since 2019, VA has gone on a hiring spree to accommodate the millions of veterans newly eligible for care and benefits.
Small agencies set for elimination: Trump has signed an executive order to eliminate to the extent allowed by law seven small agencies. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service has sent RIF notices to virtually all of its staff, as has much of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. The Institute of Museum and Library Services subsequently followed suit, as did the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Commerce Department is preparing for RIFs within its Minority Business Development Agency. Trump’s order also called for the elimination of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and the Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. Many of those actions are currently being litigated in federal court.
