The Trump administration has entered the next push, with the most aggressive yet to significantly reform the federal bureaucracy, requiring agencies to develop plans for large-scale labor that involves closing offices and relocating employees outside the Washington area.
According to the latest memo from the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget, agencies have been directed to integrate or fully adjudicate by March 13, part of the “reducing strength” process ordered by President Trump and mostly orchestrated by Elon Musk, a senior adviser for Elon Musk.
By April 14, agencies must provide new organizational charts and all proposals to relocate Washington-area offices to areas with lower cost of living, the memo shows. Instructed agents to prepare to launch this part of the plan by the end of September.
For government agencies, meeting these requirements will be an ambitious cause in any case. But in such a short time, it is impossible to achieve this goal under the law, experts say.
“There is no agent that can develop a real strategic plan in the next two weeks,” said Donald F. Kettle, professor emeritus and former dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. “They need to figure out what they want to do and how best to do that before they can get chainsaw to the government and promiscuous.”
The government is expected to comply with specific rules when it effectively makes these reductions. Kevin Owen, a hiring lawyer for Gilbert’s Employment Act, said on the one hand, employees need 60 days of notice. (Recent White House guidance says agencies can ask for an exception to provide 30-day notice.)
Additionally, each department cut should create a “RIF” registry with employees’ services, performance ratings and whether they are veterans, Irving said. The government should try to find other jobs within the government for the highest employees.
“The whole purpose of the RIF feature is to maintain the best qualification when reducing the number of jobs,” said Owen.
Mr. Trump previewed a positive schedule in this month’s executive order to reduce the size of the federal workforce, with thousands of people already fired. Most people are on probation, or occupy the work of the diversity, equity and inclusion program that the government cancels.
No government has tried to reduce the size of the federal labor force in such a short time. Federal workers have experienced a whirlwind of chaos, shock and fear since Mr. Trump’s first day in office, and the latest memo only adds a sense of fear before opening the email.
Nurse working at Veterans Affairs Hospital said they live in a state of uncertainty. They and their colleagues don’t know if they should be looking for other jobs. Their supervisor has no answer. The nurse said veterans who were asking the hospital if it would be closed said they asked the hospital to close out of anonymity due to fear of revenge.
The mother who works for the Federal Deposit Insurance Company and is the only breadwinner in the family, she has no idea how long she will have to work and expand, health insurance. The woman asked to remain anonymous because she was concerned about the government’s influence, and she said she explained that the government’s goal was to cause trauma.
“If it wasn’t that bad, it would be fun,” said Alma Aliaj, a former employee of the US International Development Agency.
Ms Aliaj was told on Sunday that she was considered a key employee and was expected to continue working. She received an email on Monday morning notifying her that her position would be laid off as part of the reduction in force and that she would lose her job on April 24. The document cites inaccurate salary. A few hours later, she was told she was fired for being a probation employee.
“The amount of confusion and lack of thought cannot be exaggerated,” she said.
Some agencies have begun to spread their plans to employees ahead of the new reduction guidelines issued Wednesday. Other departments appear to be taking steps to align with the Trump administration’s demands, such as the closure of the assessment office and the termination of the lease.
New FBI Director Kash Patel plans to send 1,000 agents from the Washington area to other parts of the country. He also intends to dispatch another 500 support staff, most of whom are currently in Washington, to the FBI campus in Huntsville, Alabama.
The union representing federal workers strongly opposes certain moves, believing that the Trump administration does not comply with rules that effectively reduces.
Officials from the Department of Housing and Urban Development told employees on Monday that the cuts were coming – the first round of 144, all from the office of on-site policy and management, which is the main point of contact for local communities.
“HUD has hardly followed RIF’s contract or statutory requirements,” said Ashaki Robinson, Washington local president of the United States Federation of Government Employees Federations. “Literally, they gave us only a list of names, what position they worked for and the executive order as the reason for RIF.”
For Mr. Trump, the shrinking of the federal government is swimming.
“We cut billions and billions of dollars,” Trump said at his first cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “We want to get it to a trillion dollars.”
Mr. Trump did not provide evidence of the “billions of dollars” he cites. The work carried out by Mr. Musk’s so-called government efficiency department is also responsible for cutting various programs and government contracts to bill with his team’s money-saving actions, which is largely opaque. Its only public ledger to date, which claims millions of savings, is wrong. Additionally, in many cases, the obvious speed of the Trump administration’s termination of contracts and grants has led to key programs, including critical funds, to help curb the Ebola outbreak and to gain an axe.
Mr. Musk admitted it was a mistake.
