WASHINGTON – Thousands of federal government employees have been shown the door in the first month of President Donald Trump's administration as the White House and its Department of Government Efficiency fire both new and career workers, tell agency leaders to plan for “large-scale reductions in force" and freeze trillions of dollars in federal grant funds.
It is affecting more than just the national capital region, home to about 20% of the 2.4 million members of the civilian federal workforce, which does not include military personnel and postal workers. More than 80% of that workforce lives outside the Washington area.
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There is no official figure available of the total firings or layoffs. The Associated Press tallied how agencies are being affected based on AP reporting and statements from lawmakers and employee unions.
Here is a look at some of the broad and specific ways federal agencies and employees are being affected by the administration's reductions, as of Wednesday:
‘Deferred resignation’ proposal for federal workers
The White House offered a “deferred resignation” proposal in exchange for financial incentives, like months of paid leave, to almost all federal employees who opted to leave their jobs by Feb. 6.
But just before that deadline, a federal judge blocked Trump’s plan, wanting to hear arguments from the administration and the labor unions, which said the offer was illegal.
According to the Office of Personnel Management, about 75,000 federal employees had accepted the offer as of Feb. 12.
Probationary employee layoffs
There have also been wide-ranging layoffs of probationary employees — those generally on the job for less than a year and who have yet to gain civil service protection. Potentially hundreds of thousands are affected.
On Feb. 13, the administration ordered agencies to lay off nearly all such workers. According to government data maintained by OPM, 220,000 federal employees had less than a year on the job as of March 2024.
Department of Veterans Affairs
On Feb. 13, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced the dismissal of more than 1,000 employees who had served for less than two years. According to Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., that included researchers working on cancer treatment, opioid addiction, prosthetics and burn pit exposure.
Education Department
At least 39 people have been fired from the Education Department, including special education specialists and student aid officials, according to a union that represents agency workers.
There have also been nearly $900 million in cuts to the department's Institute of Education Services, which tracks the progress of America’s students. It is unclear to what degree the institute would continue to exist. Industry experts said at least 169 contracts were terminated Feb. 10.
Energy Department
Hundreds of federal employees tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs were laid off Feb. 13, but that move was largely rescinded hours later, according to a memo obtained by the AP. Three U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation said as many as 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration were ousted, with some losing access to email before they had learned they were fired.
Department of Health and Human Services
The jobs of more than 5,000 probationary employees are on the line at the Department of Health and Human Services.
On Feb. 14, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were told they were losing nearly 1,300 probationary employees — about one-tenth of the agency’s workforce — but the final number was closer to 700, according to two CDC officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the cuts.
Probationary employees were also fired at public health agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, but HHS has not released a final number.
Department of Homeland Security
The probationary cuts included more than 130 employees at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which oversees the nation’s critical infrastructure, including the federal efforts to secure election systems. It is not clear whether those included 17 employees who had worked on election security and had already been placed on leave.
Four employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency — its chief financial officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist — were fired Feb. 11 over payments to reimburse New York City for hotel costs for migrants.
Internal Revenue Service
The IRS will lay off thousands of probationary workers in the middle of tax season, according to two people familiar with the agency’s plans who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
It is unclear how many IRS workers will be affected or when the cuts will happen.
National Park Service
The administration has fired about 1,000 newly hired National Park Service employees who maintain and clean parks, educate visitors and perform other functions.
The firings were not publicly announced but were confirmed by Democratic senators and House members. Adding to the confusion, the park service now says it is reinstating about 5,000 seasonal jobs that were initially rescinded last month.
Seasonal workers are routinely added during the warm-weather months to serve more than 325 million annual visitors who descend on the nation’s 428 parks, historic sites and other attractions.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The administration has ordered the agency — created after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal — to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting it down.
Agriculture Department
The new agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, said on Feb. 14 that her agency had invited Elon Musk’s DOGE team with “open arms” and that layoffs “will be forthcoming.”
A spokesman for the department, which oversees the Forest Service, said Rollins supports Trump’s directive to eliminate inefficiencies by firing about 2,000 “probationary, non-firefighting employees.”
Rollins is committed to “preserving essential safety positions and will ensure that critical services remain uninterrupted,” the spokesman said in a statement, which did not address the fired workers who were responsible for thinning trees, removing combustible debris from forests and other projects that aim to lower a wildfire’s intensity.
On Feb. 19, the department scrambled to rehire several workers who were involved in the government’s response to the ongoing bird flu outbreak that has devastated egg and poultry farms over the past three years, but who were among the thousands of federal employees eliminated on Musk's recommendations.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many workers the department might be trying to rehire and whether any of them worked at the main USDA lab in Ames, Iowa.
Foreign aid and development
Trump swiftly ordered a halt to much of the aid that the United States sends abroad. Several weeks later, the pause is on pause.
In his first week in office, Trump issued an executive order directing a 90-day hold on most of the foreign assistance disbursed through the State Department.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued several specific exemptions, including emergency food programs and military aid to Israel and Egypt from the freeze on foreign assistance. But thousands of U.S.-funded humanitarian, development and security programs worldwide stopped work or prepared to do so.
Without the money to pay staff, aid organizations including the U.S. Agency for International Development began laying off hundreds of employees. Crews removed the agency’s signage from its Washington headquarters.
But on Feb. 13, a federal judge considering some of the lawsuits challenging agency cuts ordered the administration to temporarily lift the funding freeze.
Federal grants and loans
The White House said last month it was pausing federal grants and loans as the Republican administration began an across-the-board ideological review.
The freeze could affect trillions of dollars and cause widespread disruption in health care research, education programs and other initiatives. Even grants that have been awarded but not spent are supposed to be halted.
“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” said a memo from Matthew Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Democrats and independent organizations said the move was illegal because Congress had already authorized the funding.
Inspectors general
Each of the federal government’s largest agencies has its own independent inspector general who is supposed to conduct objective audits, prevent fraud and promote efficiency.
Trump has fired at least 17 of them, including watchdogs he appointed in his first term. At least one Democratic appointee, Michael Horowitz at the Justice Department, was spared.
Trump told reporters that “it’s a very common thing to do” and that he would “put good people in there that will be very good.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the firings were a “chilling purge.” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a top Trump ally, acknowledged that the firings may have violated the law, but he added, "Just tell them you need to follow the law next time.”
Department of Justice
It’s normal for politically appointed U.S. attorneys to be replaced, but it is not standard procedure for career prosecutors to be ousted with a change in administrations.
The Justice Department said last month that it had fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal prosecutions of Trump by special counsel Jack Smith’s team.
By tradition, career employees remain with the department across presidential administrations regardless of their involvement in sensitive investigations.
Multiple senior career officials were also reassigned.
State Department
A large number of senior career diplomats who served in politically appointed leadership positions — as well as in lower-level posts at the State Department — left their jobs at the demand of the new administration.
It was not immediately clear how many nonpolitical appointees were being asked to leave.
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Martha Bellisle in Seattle contributed to this report.
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Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.