The Trump administration is ordering federal agencies to prepare for overhauls and mass layoffs by March to fulfill the president’s plan to restructure the federal government.
The Office of Personnel Management, the White House’s human resources department, and the Office of Management and Budget, sent a memo to agency heads Wednesday instructing them to submit plans for “large-scale reductions in force” and “reorganization” by March 13.
“Pursuant to the President’s direction, agencies should focus on the maximum elimination of functions that are not statutorily mandated while driving the highest-quality, most efficient delivery of their statutorily-required functions,” OMB Director Russell Vought and OPM acting director Charles Ezell said in the memo, which was first reported by Fox News.
The memo is designed to implement President Trump’s executive order earlier this month on workforce optimization and empowering billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“To restore accountability to the American public, this order commences a critical transformation of the Federal bureaucracy. By eliminating waste, bloat, and insularity, my Administration will empower American families, workers, taxpayers, and our system of Government itself,” the executive order reads.
Vought and Ezell encouraged agency heads to look for ways to consolidate department and improve efficiency through technological changes and firing employees who are unnecessary or poor performers. They also suggested eliminating non-statutory functions and renegotiating collective bargaining agreements with government unions.
The memo tells the agency leaders to work with DOGE on restructuring and mass layoffs in accordance with Trump’s executive action. Musk has overseen DOGE’s effort to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development and eliminate wasteful line items throughout the federal government, so far resulting in roughly $7 billion of savings. DOGE has also attempted to examine sensitive Treasury Department data as it expands its scope to other federal agencies.
The March 13 deadline applies to phase one of the agency overhaul plans. By April 14, OPM and OMB are asking agencies to submit detailed blueprints for increasing agency productivity and efficiency in phase two of the restructuring. Those frameworks should be implemented no later than September 30, Vought and Ezell said.
Exceptions to the Trump administration’s directive include personnel in national security, border security, law enforcement, and the armed forces. Presidential appointees, staffers in the executive office of the president, and postal service employees are also exempt from the preparations for mass layoffs.
The Trump administration is attempting to reduce the size of the federal workforce through layoffs and budget cuts across administrative agencies. Trump offered federal employees a buyout to resign in exchange for receiving pay until September, an offer 75,000 workers have accepted. In addition, the White House has attempted to fire federal probationary employees, a move that is running into legal hurdles.
The office of special counsel, an independent watchdog agency, found that the firings were lawful in the cases of six individual employees and indicated it would seek broader relief for probationary workers.