AGENCY,
DEPT, or PROGRAM |
PROGRAM CUTS, FIRINGS, AND RIFs
(dates refer to CY 2025) |
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS |
Explanatory Notes:
“Probationary employees” are those who are simply in their first year, first two years, or first three years of employment who do not yet have full civil service protections. The word “probationary” does not indicate poor performance; it is simply an automatic designation for newer employees. Importantly, these include employees transferring from other agencies who may have many years of senior level federal experience. The firings of probationary employees has nothing to do with the importance of their work; rather, it is because they are easier to dismiss.
“Reductions in Force (RIFs)”: When an agency executes a RIF action, it must comply with all applicable laws, regulations, and formal agency policies and the terms of any applicable collective bargaining agreement. Under current law and regulations, agencies are generally required to provide written notice to employees affected by a RIF 60 full days in advance of the date of release.Under the regulations, agencies are required to establish competitive areas in which employees compete for retention
(5 C.F.R.§351.402). Source – CRS
RIFs and Essential Employees: The Trump Administration has directed agency heads, in designing RIFs, to target employees who would not be considered “essential” during a government shutdown when funding lapses. This is a complete misunderstanding of the law. During a shutdown, all employers are furloughed except for a small number of employees considered essential for the protection of life and property. The designation of employees as “essential” during a shutdown has nothing to do with the importance of employee positions to fulfilling agencies’ congressionally mandated missions. See our page on shutdowns. |
| New Appropriations Committee (Democrats) Database Tracking Nearly a Half Trillion Dollars in Funds Frozen, Blocked, or Delayed by the Trump Administration–in many cases illegally |
AGENCY,
DEPT, or PROGRAM
|
PROGRAM CUTS, FIRINGS, AND RIFs
(dates refer to CY 2025) |
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS |
| |
5/7/2025: States, Cities Face Funding Collapse Threat With Trump Cuts; Officials are confronting deep uncertainty about funding for programs that undergird their economies — just as Trump’s trade war has raised fears of a recession. – Bloomberg |
| U.S. GOVERNMENT OVERALL |
As of 4/21/25 (source: NYTimes):
76,100 employees took buyouts
58,206 confirmed firings (although some temporary reinstatements following court orders)
145,420 additional planned reductions-in-force (RIFs)
TOTAL: 279,726 = 12% of 2.4 million civilian federal workers
OMB Director Vought stated his ambition to put career civil servants “in trauma” so they won’t want to do their jobs. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down….We want to put them in trauma.” |
1/20: Trump revives “Schedule F” to remove civil service protections and make federal employment subject to political decisions–moving back to the old political patronage environment which the independent civil service was created to replace.
1/28: “Deferred resignation” buyout offer to all federal employees (without congressional authorization or appropriation of funds for the buyouts)
2/13: OPM orders blanket firing of probationary employees
2/26: OPM/OMB order heads of departments to submit large-scale RIFs by 3/13
2/27: Judge temporarily blocks OPM firing of probationary employees
3/5: OPM says firings will be handled by each agency
4/17: Trump extends hiring freeze |
Inspectors
General (IGs) |
1/25: The Trump administration has fired about 17 independent inspectors general at government agencies, a sweeping action to remove oversight of his new administration that some members of Congress are suggesting violated federal oversight laws. – AP |
|
Agriculture
Department |
3/5: 5,600 probationary employees were fired but temporarily reinstated by the Merit Systems Protection Board.
4/7: USDA said mass layoffs are coming along with closure of the Department’s headquarters in DC, with employees relocated to regional hubs. |
|
| AmeriCorps |
4/18: AP reports that 85% of AmeriCorps’ 500 workers placed on leave
4/25: DOGE terminates nearly $400 million in grants that account for about 41 percent of total grant funding. |
|
Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) |
3/27: HHS cuts include 2,400 employees at CDC |
|
| Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) |
3/24: HHS cuts include 300 employees at CMS |
|
| Consumer Financial Protection Bureau |
2/9: Trump administration orders CFPB workers to cease all bank supervision and consumer engagement activities
2/12: With attack on consumer bureau, Musk removes obstacle to his “X money” vision – NYT
|
4/18: Federal judge temporarily blocks mass firings at consumer bureau |
Defense
Dept. |
2/21: Pentagon to fire up to 61,000 of the DOD’s 760,000 civilian workforce, beginning with 5,400 probationary employees.
3/3: Began placing probationary employees on admin. leave |
|
| Education Department |
3/11: The Education Department plans to lay off more than 1,300 of its employees as part of an effort to cut DoEd’s staff in half — a prelude to President Donald Trump’s plan to dismantle the agency. The department is also terminating leases on buildings in cities including New York, Boston, Chicago and Cleveland, officials said.Even before the layoffs, the Education Department was among the smallest Cabinet-level agencies. Its workforce included 3,100 people in Washington and an additional 1,100 at regional offices across the country. – AP |
3/24: The administration has already terminated hundreds of grants and contracts supporting teacher preparation and education research; frozen funding doled out by the Biden administration for electric school buses and other clean-energy improvements; and canceled approvals for districts and states to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic relief funds on projects and programs they’ve already committed to carry out. – EdWeek |
| Energy Department |
2/14: DOE laid off about 1,200 to 2,000 workers at the Department of Energy, including employees at an electric power grid office, the nuclear security administration and the loans office. Democrats said the layoffs include workers at national labs and hydroelectric plants, and nuclear sites that pose safety risks. |
2/19: Trump’s energy secretary admits to ‘mistakes’ after nuclear safety employee layoffs |
| Environmental Protection Agency |
2/14: 388 terminated–including staff tasked with enforcing Clear Air and Water Acts. |
2/21: EPA reversed some of the layoffs in the Chicago region |
| Federal Aviation Administration |
2/19: DOT Secretary Duffy fired 400 FAA employees, primarily those in probationary period.
2/21: Politico: “More than 130 of the eliminated workers held jobs that directly or indirectly support the air traffic controllers, facilities and technologies that the FAA uses to keep planes and their passengers safe.” |
|
| Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) |
2/17: 670 terminated at the key bank regulator including 500 who took a buyout and 170 terminated. (Bank failures exposed shorthanded FDIC examiner force.) |
|
Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA at DHS) |
2/16: more than 200 personnel were fired from FEMA, the nation’s disaster relief agency, including senior members of the policy team. |
|
| Food & Drug Admin. (HHS) |
2/24: 180 physicians and cyber experts in the medical devices division laid off
3/27: HHS cuts include 3,500 FDA employees |
Administration then back-tracked and tried to rehire. |
Forest Service
(USDA) |
2/17: Admin. has cut about 10% of the Forest Service raising fears about wildfire prevention, response, and recovery and potentially driving up homeowner insurance costs in vulnerable areas; 3,400 probationary workers fired |
|
| General Service Administration (GSA) |
2/2: laid off roughly 90 people—all federal technologists whose role was to modernize and make the government more efficient with better software. |
|
Health & Human Services
Department |
3/27: HHS cuts 10,000 employees, on top of 10,000 who left voluntarily, shrinking the workforce from 82,000 to 62,000; in addition 5,200 probationary workers are on leave while their fate winds through the courts |
|
Homeland Security
Department (DHS) |
2/16: Trump administration fires over 400 DHS employees as mass firings continue…within the nation’s top cybersecurity agency, known as CISA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which administers the nation’s legal immigration system….Cuts at USCIS baffled some within the leadership ranks of the agency, who noted the agency is largely funded by immigration application fees. |
|
| Housing and Urban Development Dept. (HUD) |
2/21: The Trump administration’s proposal to cut half of federal workers at the nation’s housing agency is targeting employees who support disaster recovery, rental subsidies, discrimination investigations and first-time homebuyers…More than a dozen programs…would be affected by the loss of 4,000 positions. |
|
| Institute of Museum and Library Services |
3/14: President Trump issued an executive order March 14 to dismantle the IMLS before firing nearly all of its employees. |
5/18: Libraries across the United States are cutting back on e-books, audiobooks and loan programs after the Trump administration suspended millions of dollars in federal grants as it tries to dissolve the Institute of Museum and Library Services. |
Interior
Department |
2/18: More than 2000 probationary workers fired including workers managing water resources in western states, and 240 people at the U.S. Geological Survey which monitors volcanoes and earthquakes but is also one of the leading agencies for climate research. |
|
Internal
Revenue
Service
(Treasury) |
2/19: The IRS will lay off roughly 7,000 workers in Washington and around the country. Disproportionately hitting workers in enforcement which will hurt tax collections. Trump also plans to transfer some IRS employees to DHS for immigration enforcement.
3/5: Why DOGE’s cuts to IRS threaten to cost more than DOGE will ever save. |
After receiving $80 billion in one-time mandatory funding in 2022, IRS beefed up customer service and was recently focused on improving enforcement. Between 2021 and 2024, the workforce increased by one quarter, to more than 100,000. Cutting newer probationary employees makes little sense for an agency where nearly 2/3 of employees are eligible to retire in the next 6 years. Former IRS Commissioner Rettig who served during Trump-45 said, “An underfunded IRS significantly benefits unidentified, noncompliant taxpayers at the direct expense of compliant taxpayers.” |
Justice Dept.
Grants |
4/24: DOJ axes hundreds of grants that help crime victims and fight opioid abuse |
|
| Low Income Home Energy Assistance |
4/2: HHS fires entire staff of program that helps low-income people afford heat and air conditioning |
|
| Millenium Challenge Corp. |
4/23: MCC staff were told all of the agency’s programs to reduce poverty and promote economic growth around the world will be shutdown |
|
National Institute of Standards and Technology
(COMMERCE) |
2/19: Trump Team Plans Mass Firings at Key Agency for AI and Chips |
|
| National Institutes of Health (HHS) |
3/24: HHS cuts include 1,200 employees at NIH, the nation’s premier medical research agency |
|
National Nuclear
Security Admin. (DOE) |
2/14: Trump officials fired nuclear staff not realizing they oversee the country’s weapons stockpile |
2/16: Trump administration tries to bring back fired nuclear weapons workers in DOGE reversal |
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) |
2/27: 880 probationary employees fired at NOAA, agency that oversees hurricane center and weather service |
5/14: NOAA scrambles to fill forecasting jobs as hurricane season looms The agency acknowledged “urgent action is needed to sustain mission-critical operations,” as peak severe weather and hurricane season approach. |
| National Park Service |
2/19: 1000 Park Service workers fired including scientists and maintenance workers |
Administration then tried to rehire at least 50 and is now hiring 7700 seasonal workers. |
| National Science Foundation |
2/18: More than 10% of the employees at NSF, an independent agency supporting cutting-edge scientific research, were laid off, and a total reduction of 25 to 50 percent is planned. NSF focuses on quantum computing, AI, and creation of new advanced materials.
4/22: NSF terminates hundreds of active research awards |
|
Natural
Resources
Conservation
Service (USDA) |
2/13: NRCS fired about 1,200 employees in Oklahoma, Idaho, and Kansas impacting conservation planners and natural resources scientists supporting soil and water conservation projects.
2/20: USDA layoff of scientists has derailed projects benefitting farmers across the country |
|
| NIOSH |
4/25: NIOSH’s congressionally mandated Health Hazard Evaluation program is one of many health and safety services on which firefighters depend that’s been shrunk or eliminated by HHS in Kennedy’s RIF of 10,000 employees |
|
| Office of Personnel Management (OPM) |
2/14: 70 employees terminated at the chronically underfunded and backlogged agency. |
|
| Social Security Admin. (SSA) |
2/27: cuts at least 7,000 staff (12% of the workforce); dozens of offices |
4/9: backs away from cuts to phone service |
State
Department |
4/22: Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled a massive overhaul of the State Department on Tuesday, with plans to reduce staff in the U.S. by 15% while closing and consolidating more than 100 bureaus worldwide. The restructuring was driven in part by the need to find a new home for the remaining functions of the U.S. Agency for International Development, an agency that Trump administration officials and billionaire ally Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have dismantled. – AP |
|
| Transportation Department |
4/1: DOT sent thousands of employees a buyout offer but spared employees who provide support for Musk’s Starlink and SpaceX launches |
|
Transportation Security Administration
(TSA at DHS) |
2/20: More than 200 TSA employees fired in Trump’s push to cut federal workforce |
|
USAID
Agency for
International
Development
(State) |
1/24: Trump ordered a near total freeze on distribution of foreign aid
2/4: USAID employees placed on administrative leave cutting workforce from 10,000 to 294–disrupting humanitarian aid programs
3/28: Trump administration moves to formally abolish USAID
|
|
| US Institute of Peace |
5/19: Federal judge rules Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle US Institute of Peace are ‘unlawful’
The decision comes following a dramatic standoff between USIP employees and DOGE official, who covertly entered the building with police assistance. |
|
Veterans
Affairs (VA)
Department |
2/14: VA cut 1,000 employees. The senior Senate Democratic appropriator said the layoffs have affected VA researchers working on mental health, cancer treatments, alcohol and opioid addiction, prosthetics and burn pit exposure. |
|
Voice of
America |
3/14: Trump orders cuts to US Agency for Global Media, Radio Free Europe and Asia, and Radio Marti to minimum required by law |
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