Elon Musk will oversee the reductions in federal budgets, and many government workers affected by Donald Trump’s return will have to submit an overview of their work on Monday.
Musk’s demand that civil-service employees submit a summary of their work by 11 p.m. Eastern Time (0459 GMT), has prompted varying responses from different federal agencies.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Communications Commission, and others have instructed employees to obey. Many other departments, such as the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Education, Commerce, and Energy, have instructed workers not to respond.
The Department of Health and Human Services initially told its employees to cooperate. Later, it told them to wait while they figured out “how to best meet the intention” of Musk’s strange directive.
Musk sent an email to workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, despite their having been ordered to stop working.
Musk warned federal employees to comply in a post he made on his social network X, posted Monday morning: “Those that do not take this message seriously will be moving their career elsewhere soon.”
In a separate posting, he said that any federal employees who have not returned to their office following Trump’s directive last month will be placed on administrative leaves starting this week.
Musk, the richest man in the world, has led an effort to downsize the civil service. This has resulted in the layoffs of over 20,000 employees and the buyout of another 75,000 workers across different sectors.
In some cases the government has scrambled for rehiring workers who perform crucial functions such as nuclear weapons oversight or bird flu response. A wave of lawsuits was also filed by various labor groups in response to the downsizing.
Trump’s administration announced late Sunday that it would lay off 1,600 employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development, and place nearly all of the remaining staff on leave. Trump has already stopped almost all funding and operations of the U.S. Agency for International Development, affecting global humanitarian relief efforts.
Many workers are now facing financial insecurity as a result of the mass firings.
Charles Farinella is a former IRS agent from New York who was unsure if he had coverage for a dentist appointment. He hasn’t been informed if he does.
“I’m not sure what I will do at this time.” He said he might need to sell his house because he didn’t receive any severance. “I’m pretty much distraught.”
Musk’s effort to cut jobs has also rippled through the U.S. economic system, forcing businesses that do business with government agencies to layoff their employees and delay payments to vendors. Chemonics is a company that does business with USAID. In a recent court filing, it said that it furloughed 63% of its workforce, or 750 employees.
Musk publicly expressed his view on budget cuts. He even used a chainsaw during his appearance at the conservative political conference held last week.
Musk, the CEO of social media platform X and Tesla, has stated that he aims at cutting $1 trillion off the $6.7 trillion government budget. Musk has said that he will examine the programs to see if they are fraudulent. Trump promised to exempt popular retirement and health benefits.
“We are becoming more optimistic as we eliminate the enormous waste & fraud from Social Security & Medical, that there is a potential for increased actual dollars received by Citizens & better health care!” He wrote about it on X Sunday.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), a watchdog organization, estimates that the total fraud and improper payments may be as high as $521 billion per year, which is equal to 8% of last year’s spending.
The opposition Democrats claim that the budget-cutting effort infringes upon the authority of Congress over government expenditures, but they have had difficulty in stopping the initiative.
Republicans in Congress are cheering the effort, as they prepare their own sweeping legislation to enact tax cuts worth trillions of dollars. Some Republicans, however, have been booed by voters in their home country who believe Musk has overstepped his authority.
