President Donald Trump is directing agency heads to prepare for reductions-in-force, giving them 30 days to submit reorganization plans as part of a new attempt to downsize the federal government.
Trump’s latest executive order is also aimed at further institutionalizing the Elon Musk’s “Department of Efficiency” initiative across government. Trump signed the executive order Tuesday night in the Oval Office alongside Musk.
Under the EO, the Office of Management and Budget will develop a plan to reduce the size of the government’s workforce “through efficiency improvements and attrition.”
The order comes as the Trump administration attempts to convince federal employees to take its “deferred resignation” offer. A federal judge has paused the deferred resignation program amid a legal challenge.
The order directs agency heads to prepare to initiate “large-scale reductions in force,” while at the same time terminating both temporary employees and reemployed annuitants working in areas that won’t be subject to the RIFs.
The order does not specifically say when the RIFs would begin. As Federal News Network has previously reported, RIFs are typically a complex and time-consuming process that can open agencies to legal challenges and worsening productivity.
“All offices that perform functions not mandated by statute or other law shall be prioritized in the RIFs,” the order states.
It specifies that personnel working on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, as well as any functions that Trump “suspends or closes,” are priorities for the RIF actions. It additionally calls for agencies to prioritize employees “performing functions not mandated by statute or other law who are not typically designated as essential” during a government shutdown.
The order directs agencies to submit reorganization plans to OMB within 30 days. The reports should identify statutes that establish the agency, as well as discussion of “whether the agency or any of its subcomponents should be eliminated or consolidated.”
Trump’s order requires that agencies hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart.
It additionally requires agency heads to work with DOGE team leads to develop a “data-driven plan” that ensures new career appointment hires are in the “highest-need areas.” DOGE team leads will provide the newly renamed U.S. DOGE Service with monthly hiring reports for each agency.
The order doesn’t apply to military personnel. And agency heads are allowed to exempt “any position they deem necessary to meet national security, homeland security, or public safety responsibilities” from the EO.
The director of the Office of Personnel Management may also grant exemptions to the executive order.
Congressional Democrats immediately hit out at the executive order, calling it illegal and highlighting the impacts to public services.
“This unprecedented assault on the federal workforce and the services they provide to the American people will not go unanswered,” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said in a statement. “We are going to fight every way we can: in the courts, in public opinion, with the bully pulpit, in the halls of Congress, and in every community across this country. We are not going to let this injustice happen.”
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said the EO directs “careless job cuts to federal agencies that are already understaffed.”
“This executive order will only make government worse and less efficient for the taxpayers who count on Social Security, Medicaid, and so much else,” Murray said.
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) called the the latest actions a “purge of the federal civil service” that is “illegal, terrible for the country, and paves the way for increased corruption.”
“Federal workers and their expertise are vital to Americans’ health and security,” Beyer said. “They work everyday to protect us from disease, crime, and threats foreign and domestic. They ensure our seniors have Social Security and Medicare, they provide care to veterans, and they deliver our mail. Trump’s plan to massively reduce the workforce providing those services will severely damage the delivery of those services.
Unions prepare for RIFs
Even before Trump signed the order Tuesday night, federal employee unions have been preparing for the possibility of large-scale RIFs.
AFGE Policy Director Jacqueline Simon told reporters at the union’s legislative conference on Monday that RIFs mean agencies no longer needs positions to carry out certain functions, or no longer has funding to perform those functions.
“To simply run a RIF and then automatically contract the work out is not lawful,” Simon said.
Acting AFGE Legislative Director Daniel Horowitz said he questioned the legality of the RIFs, since they’re based on the executive branch reining in funds Congress has already appropriated.
“The reason they’re doing the RIFs is because they’re doing unlawful impoundments. We don’t want to lose sight of that. They’re closing agencies without any authority from Congress and then seeking to RIF people. There’s still all the work to do, so there shouldn’t be any RIFs,” he said.
(Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman contributed reporting to this story.)
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