Federal agencies may soon face significant staffing reductions as part of a comprehensive initiative by the Trump administration to reduce the size of the federal government. The document outlines potential personnel cuts ranging from 8% to 50% across 22 agencies, marking what could be a dramatic restructuring of the federal bureaucracy.
These projected reductions are based on preliminary plans submitted by agency leaders in response to a February 11 executive order issued by President Donald Trump. The directive instructed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in collaboration with the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and adviser Elon Musk, to begin aggressively shrinking the 2.3 million-employee federal workforce. Agencies were required to submit initial proposals earlier this month, with more detailed plans due by mid-April, writes The Washington Post, which obtained documents laying out the plan.
The document covers 22 agencies and doesn’t have information in some categories. Several people familiar with the document stressed that planning remains fluid and that the numbers do not necessarily reflect what agencies will ultimately cut.
But it indicates that broad staff cuts are likely to have a significant impact on the scope of the government’s work. For example, the document lists the Department of Housing and Urban Development as cutting half of its roughly 8,300-person staff, while the Interior Department would shed nearly 1 in 4 of the workers it had when Trump took office and the IRS would cut nearly 1 in 3.
“It’s no secret the Trump Administration is dedicated to downsizing the federal bureaucracy and cutting waste, fraud, and abuse. This document is a pre-deliberative draft and does not accurately reflect final reduction in force plans,” White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said in an email. “When President Trump’s Cabinet Secretaries are ready to announce reduction in force plans, they will make those announcements to their respective workforces at the appropriate time.”
The document shows reductions of 8 percent at the Justice Department, 28 percent at the National Science Foundation, 30 percent at the Commerce Department and 43 percent at the Small Business Administration, among others.
Some departments have already begun to implement cuts, noted the newspaper. The Department of Education, for example, confirmed it is reducing its staff by 50 percent.
Proponents of the plan argue that downsizing will reduce government inefficiency and better align federal agencies with their core statutory duties. However, critics caution that such reductions could undermine essential public services and prompt legal challenges—especially in light of previous firings of probationary employees that courts later ruled unlawful.
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