The Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management delivered a memo to all executive branch agencies this week ordering them to prepare for major staffing cuts.
In the Wednesday memo, the two offices told the agencies they have until March 13 to submit “reorganization plans” as part of the overhaul. The memo directed the agencies to look for opportunities to reduce headcount and leverage automation.
“Agencies should also seek to consolidate areas of the agency organization chart that are duplicative; consolidate management layers where unnecessary layers exist; seek reductions in components and positions that are non-critical; implement technological solutions that automate routine tasks while enabling staff to focus on higher-value activities; close and/or consolidate regional field offices to the extent consistent with efficient service delivery; and maximally reduce the use of outside consultants and contractors,” the document read, per CBS News.
“When taking these actions, agencies should align closures and/or relocation of bureaus and offices with agency return-to-office actions to avoid multiple relocation benefit costs for individual employees.”
Some positions, such as those “necessary to meet law enforcement, border security, national security, immigration enforcement, or public safety responsibilities,” were excluded from the directive.
The move comes in the wake of numerous actions taken under the current administration to aggressively curtail and scale back federal spending.
According to an update earlier in February, the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, better known as DOGE, saved American taxpayers $55 billion during its first month in existence. The group, led by Elon Musk, has even floated the idea of cutting a $5,000 check to each American taxpayer.
Earlier this week, The Dallas Express reported that Musk had announced that all federal employees were asked via email to provide five bullet points describing what they accomplished in their job over the previous week.
“Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” wrote Musk.
On February 24, Musk posted on X that employees who missed the deadline to respond would be given one more chance.
The White House later said each agency could decide whether employees should reply. Still, President Trump suggested this week that they might look into the roughly one million employees who ultimately did not respond, noting that some may have abstained from responding because of the sensitive nature of their role.