It was reported that the Trump administration intends to reduce federal agency workforces by up to half.
The Washington Post obtained an internal White House memo that revealed federal officials were preparing to reduce between 8% and 50 % of their staff.
After 22 agencies presented plans to Donald Trump, the cuts were made.
The memo was updated Tuesday and states that the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the IRS, and the Interior Department will all reduce their staff by half.
According to The Post, other departments that saw cuts include the Justice Department (8%) and the National Science Foundation (28%), as well as the Commerce Department (30%) and the Small Business Administration (43%).
The sources told the outlet that there is still a lot of flexibility in the planning, and the final numbers may differ from the memo.
The federal bureaucracy relies on a workforce of 2.3 million.
It’s no secret that the Trump Administration is committed to downsizing federal bureaucracy and cutting waste, fraud, and abuse. Harrison Fields, White House’s principal deputy press secretary, told the Post that this document was a pre-deliberative and did not accurately reflect plans for reductions in force.
When President Trump’s cabinet secretaries are ready, they will announce their plans for reductions in force to their respective employees at the appropriate time.
Trump, Elon Musk, and the Department of Government Efficiency have focused on streamlining federal spending and reducing fraud and waste.
Last week, White House officials reviewed the downsizing plans of federal agencies. This move is expected to lead to the firing of thousands of government employees in the next few weeks.
The president gave agencies until the 13th of March to prepare plans for a new round of layoffs. This was part of a rapid-fire plan to reshape the federal government and reduce its size, which he called inefficient and bloated.
In an executive order dated February 11, Trump directed the Office of Management and Budget and DOGE that they should reduce the workforce.
The reduction-in force (RIF), which is a process of reducing the number of employees, will likely survive any legal challenges better than the mass firings earlier this year of probationary workers.
Robert Shea, Republican and former senior politician at the White House Budget Office, said that the RIF is a process established by law. Shea predicted that attempts to cut costs would be met with additional litigation, but said: “Because it is a well established path, it is more likely than some other avenues.”
