A group of Senate Democrats is pressing the Trump administration for information on pending Federal agency layoffs and warning of possible “catastrophic” consequences from what they called the administration’s “strategic hollowing out” of the government workforce.
In a letter sent April 10 and addressed to the heads of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Gary Peters, D-Mich., led a group of 15 senators in requesting answers regarding the Trump administration’s plans for mass Federal layoffs, which could impact many thousands of employees beyond those already cut through recent firings and retirement offers.
The senators want answers by April 21 – particularly on plans that impact Federal government tech, cyber, and artificial intelligence talent, and employees that further the aims of the CHIPS and Science Act.
“Federal employees provide critical services for the American people … These dedicated public servants include experts in their field and veterans seeking to continue their service to our country out of uniform,” wrote the senators.
They said the Trump administration’s “ultimate goal is clear: weaken the federal government to serve the President’s politics rather than the needs of the American people.”
“After federal agencies are gutted, we fear the Administration will replace the dedicated, nonpartisan civil servants with political loyalists and sell agencies for parts to unaccountable corporations that will profit off the backs of taxpayers, privatizing critical services from Social Security benefits to air traffic control,” they said.
In February, President Trump issued an executive order directing agencies to conduct layoffs of employees deemed not to be related to agency functions that have been authorized by congressional statutes.
That order has since landed the administration in numerous courtroom battles over the legality of layoffs as a wave of probationary employees and others were fired within the weeks after the order.
“As you know, in order to conduct a legal RIF, an agency must follow strict regulations, including considering veteran status, in order to determine whether a position is eliminated and whether the employee in an eliminated position has a right to a different position,” the senators said. “If the agencies are following the regulations, the process takes considerable manpower and resources.”
“The size and scope of the reported RIF plans are clearly not about government efficiency,” the senators said.
Lawmakers are seeking clarification on: whether veterans’ preferences are being honored; reduction in force (RIF) plans and procedures; documents on how terminated employees are being tracked and potentially reinstated; and what role individuals like Elon Musk – named as a Special Government Employee but widely considered to be leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – are playing in the decision-making process.
They also said that agencies must still spend the funds provided to them by Congress and requested information on where funds that would otherwise go to salaries would be diverted toward if they were not used to pay Federal workers.