After agencies were instructed to submit extensive downsizing plans, the Trump administration is anticipated to proceed with a second round of mass layoffs and budget cuts throughout the U.S. federal government on Friday.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has been largely tasked by President Donald Trump with significantly reshaping the federal bureaucracy, which coincides with the latest round of layoffs.
To date, DOGE has presided over the cancellation of thousands of programs and contracts, the freezing of foreign aid, and the possible reduction of over 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-strong federal civilian workforce.
The deadline for federal agencies to submit restructuring plans for what Trump referred to as “large-scale reductions in force” last month was Thursday.
The possibility of additional job losses coincides with financial markets already being unsettled by the economic threats posed by Trump’s international trade war.
Laptops 1000Concerns that Trump’s policies would trigger a recession caused stocks to plummet once more on Thursday.
Trump issued an executive order on February 11 ordering all agencies to “promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force,” using a legal term known as RIF to refer to mass layoffs, with tech entrepreneur Elon Musk by his side.
Plans should include “a significant reduction” of full-time employees, real estate savings, a reduced budget, and the removal of non-legally required duties, according to a later memo from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
The U.S. Department of Education announced on Tuesday that it will lay off almost half of its 4,000 employees, while the Department of Veterans Affairs was planning to reduce almost 80,000 employees.
Tens of millions of older Americans receive their payments from the Social Security Administration, which is laying off 7,000 employees.
More than 1,000 employees would be let go by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which issues weather forecasts.
COURT DIFFICULTIES
Several agencies have provided lump sum payouts to workers who choose to retire early, which may assist the agencies in avoiding the legal issues that arise throughout the RIF process and that unions have promised to challenge in court.
The layoffs come after agencies were compelled to reinstate hundreds of probationary staff who had been fired in recent weeks by two court orders on Thursday.
The departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Energy, Interior, and Treasury should reinstate probationary employees, usually those who have been on the job for less than two years, according to a ruling by U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco.
The White House promised to appeal Alsup’s ruling.
The career staff who are scheduled to be let go in the latest round of downsizing are not affected by the verdict.
Tens of thousands of federal jobs could be lost as a result of that process.
In addition, a federal judge in Maryland ordered the administration to restore tens of thousands of newly hired government employees following Alsup’s decision.
In Baltimore, U.S. District Judge James Bredar concurred with 20 Democratic-led states that 18 agencies that had sacked probationary staff in large numbers in the last few weeks had broken rules limiting the termination of federal employees.
The two decisions represented the most significant legal blows to Trump and Musk’s reduction proposal yet.
