POLITICO (“‘Like a tornado hit’: Stunned federal workers take stock of mass layoffs — and brace for repercussions“):
Americans could soon start to feel the repercussions of the Trump administration’s decision to fire thousands of government workers — from public safety to health benefits and basic services that they have come to rely on.
Trump’s directive to slash thousands of jobs across agencies is leaving gaping holes in the government, with thousands of workers being laid off from the Education Department, the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Veterans Affairs and multiple others.
At the U.S. Forest Service, where some 3,400 workers are slated to be cut, wildfire prevention will be curtailed as the West grapples with a destructive fire season that has destroyed millions of acres in California.
And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wasn’t spared: Almost half of the agency’s 2,800 probationary employees were cut while about 400 employees appeared to have taken the “buy-out” offer, meaning the agency responsible for protecting Americans from disease outbreaks and other health hazards will lose about a tenth of its workforce. That’s on top of more than 2,000 probationary employees fired from the Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC’s parent agency.
“Morale is tanked,” said a forest service official close to the situation — who, like many current and former government employees who spoke to POLITICO, was granted anonymity out of fear of retribution. “The public will see it this summer when campgrounds are shut down, trails aren’t maintained and bathrooms aren’t cleaned.”
Should the gutting of the federal government result in immediate negative consequences for the American people, the Trump administration could face political backlash from voters in Republican and Democratic states who suddenly find a host of services — including access to government websites or even benefits — vanish.
The Office of Personnel Management, which serves as the federal government’s human resources department, has been operated by associates of Elon Musk for weeks. The agency, which also laid off staff, sent out the so-called “Fork in the Road” deferred resignation notice to federal employees allowing those who opted in to resign their posts but be paid to not work through September.
A lawsuit filed by union officials representing federal workers temporarily halted the program, but a federal judge ruled the program could move forward, because the union officials didn’t have standing. The Trump administration then said no more federal employees could opt into the program — and the next day, the terminations of federal workers on probation resumed.
“We definitely cut more than probationary employees,” a person familiar with Office of Personnel Management firings said Friday. “We cut the entire communications department” and career employees too, the person added. In total, the person said as many as 200,000 civil service workers across the federal government that were in their probationary period as of this week could receive termination notices.
Bloomberg (“Dismissed Nuclear Bomb Specialists Recalled by Energy Department“):
The Energy Department is seeking to bring back nuclear energy specialists after abruptly telling hundreds of workers that their jobs were eliminated, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The employees, responsible for designing and maintaining the nation’s cache of nuclear weapons at the National Nuclear Safety Administration, were part of a larger wave of workers dismissed from the Energy Department, drawing alarm from national security experts. Between 300 and 400 NNSA workers were terminated, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The agency’s quick reversal was announced Friday in an all-staff meeting. The NNSA is seeking to recall the workers because they deal with sensitive national security secrets, according to the people, who weren’t authorized to talk about the matter, which is not public.
Those cuts are especially concerning because the positions typically require high-level security clearances and training that can take 18 months or longer, said Jill Hruby, who served as the NNSA administrator during the Biden administration.
“These people are likely never going to come back and work for the government,” Hruby said in a phone interview. “We’ve had a very active program requiring an increase to our staff so the indiscriminate layoffs of people will be really difficult for the coming years.”
The firings — part of a wave of terminations across the federal government this week spurred by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency — underscore the chaos as the world’s richest man seeks to quickly overhaul the federal bureaucracy in Trump’s image. At the Small Business Administration earlier this week, some workers who were told they were being fired, received a second message telling them that they weren’t being terminated and that their jobs were safe — only to receive a third message telling them they were, in fact, out of a job.
AP (“Anger, chaos and confusion take hold as federal workers face mass layoffs“):
Workers across the country responded with anger and confusion Friday as they grappled with the Trump administration ‘s aggressive effort to shrink the size of the federal workforce by ordering agencies to lay off probationary employees who have yet to qualify for civil service protections.
While much of the administration’s attention was focused on disrupting bureaucracy in Washington, the broad-based effort to slash the government workforce was impacting a far wider swath of workers. As layoff notices were sent out agency by agency, federal employees from Michigan to Florida were left reeling from being told that their services were no longer needed.
In a sign of how chaotic the firings have been, some who received layoff notices had already accepted the administration’s deferred resignation offer, under which they were supposed to be paid until Sept. 30 if they agreed to quit, raising questions about whether others who signed the deal would nonetheless be fired. On Friday evening, the Office of Personnel Management, which serves as a human resources department for the federal government, acknowledged that some employees may have received termination notices in error and said the buyouts agreements would be honored.
“This has been slash and burn,” said Nicholas Detter, who had been working in Kansas as a natural resource specialist, helping farmers reduce soil and water erosion, until he was fired by email late Thursday night. He said there seemed to be little thought about how employees and the farmers and ranchers he helped would be impacted.
“None of this has been done thoughtfully or carefully,” he said.
[…]
On Thursday night, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced the dismissal of more than 1,000 employees who had served for less than two years. That included researchers working on cancer treatment, opioid addiction, prosthetics and burn pit exposure, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat, said Thursday.
Dozens were fired from the Education Department, including special education specialists and student aid officials, according to a union that represents agency workers.
At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 1,300 probationary employees — roughly one-tenth of the agency’s total workforce — are being forced out. The Atlanta-based agency’s leadership was notified of the decision Friday morning, according to a federal official who was at the meeting and was not authorized to discuss the orders and requested anonymity.
The new Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Friday that her agency had invited Musk’s DOGE team with “open arms” and that layoffs “will be forthcoming.”
“Clearly, it’s a new day,” Rollins said at the White House. “I think the American people spoke on November 5th, that they believe that government was too big.”
WSJ (“DOGE’s Federal Job Cuts Threaten Republican Districts Too“):
President Trump has Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency working to sharply cut the size and scope of the federal government. To do so, he will have to strike in both Democratic and Republican areas.
While Washington, D.C., and its surrounding suburbs are known for their concentration of government workers, the reality is that America’s 2.3 million federal employees (not including uniformed military or Postal Service workers) are scattered across the country. They are in Alabama’s Fifth Congressional District at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. They are in Kentucky’s Second Congressional District supporting agriculture and rural development. And they are in Kansas’ Second Congressional District guarding federal inmates.
More than half of the 100 congressional districts with the largest proportion of federal workers are held by the GOP, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. That could make cutting outside of Washington politically challenging since lawmakers traditionally have fought to protect federal jobs in their districts.
The Washington region—including the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia—is home to about one in five of the nation’s civilian federal employees, according to the Office of Personnel Management. This region, which includes the headquarters of the federal government, has been the area where conservatives have heavily focused their initial efforts to cut employees and bureaucracy.
The South
The South and Southeast is heavy on military installations and veterans, which require civilian support and Department of Veterans Affairs employees. Oklahoma’s 4th Congressional District, for example, is home to Fort Sill and Tinker Air Force Base. Those bases are among the district’s largest employers. In Alabama, the 5th Congressional District is home to the Redstone Arsenal and other national security assets as well as NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Midwest and Northeast
This region has more federal workers who specialize in agriculture as well as its share of civilian workers associated with military installations. In Iowa, for example, a fifth of all federal civilian workers are employed by the Agriculture Department, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management. Ohio’s 10th Congressional District is home to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the largest single-site employer in the state, according to the local representative.
The West and Beyond
Federal civilian workers employed by the Interior Department, which manages America’s vast natural and cultural resources, are more common in western states, as are those who work for the USDA and the Energy Department. In Wyoming, workers for the Interior Department represent roughly a quarter of civilian federal workers there. Alaska and Hawaii both have larger proportions of federal employees supporting military installations, as well as Veterans Affairs workers.
This seems rather problematic but Musk is a genius, so I’m sure there’s a well-crafted plan that I’m just not smart enough to understand.
Regardless, I have little confidence that Congress will intervene. In the first Trump administration, there were Republicans willing to stand up on occasion on matters of principle or constituent interest. The combination of Trump’s further reshaping the party in his image and Musk’s demonstrated ability to mobilize the mob against dissenters makes that very unlikely to happen this go-around.
