WUSA9
The newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) made waves in the United States by approving the termination and suspension of thousands of government employees.
This is all part of Elon Musk and President Donald Trump’s joint plan to downsize the U.S. government and reduce federal spending across the board.
Over 100,000 employees have been fired. The majority were from the Department of Veterans Affairs, where 70,000 employees were let go. The other most numerous layoffs conducted include over 6,000 employees from the Internal Revenue Service, over 7,000 employees from the Social Security Administration, around 5,400 employees from the Department of Defense, over 1,000 employees from the National Park Service (NPS) and around 3,400 from the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). Many other agencies faced smaller reductions, including the Food & Drug Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Energy, among many more.
Initially, the federal workers’ unions moved to block many of the layoffs; however, Judge Christopher Cooper of the Washington District of Columbia (D.C.) District Court allowed Trump to move ahead with them.
When the layoffs began, they were limited to probationary workers—workers who had been working at their respective agency for under one year—but they eventually expanded to include others. Many employees were fired with little or no warning. DOGE claimed that it targeted only those who were underqualified or performed poorly at their jobs, but this has been disputed by many personal accounts.
In addition to the people fired outright, many employees were given offers to willfully perform a ‘deferred resignation’ before Feb. 6. Employees were given financial incentives to accept these offers, such as months of paid leave. This option proved to be popular, and over 75,000 employees went through with it.
Reactions to the layoffs have been mixed, but there has been considerable public outcry against them. In several National Parks, protests have been organized in reaction to the NPS and USFS firings, such as a demonstration in Yosemite National Park March 1 and another in Yellowstone National Park on the same day. There was some shock when several hundred members of the National Nuclear Security Administration were fired but very quickly rehired due to the previously unrecognized importance of their positions.
In response to the public reception of the firings, several agencies, such as NPS and the United States Department of Agriculture, have promised to restore many of the positions they had previously terminated.