What to Know About the Federal Worker Layoffs

People protest the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) along with Democrat lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 11, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has shaken up Washington, D.C., with its audits, triggering reforms and layoffs in a number of federal agencies.

On Feb. 20, a judge ruled that the Trump administration can continue its widespread firings of federal employees. The judge rejected a bid by a group of labor unions to end the current administration’s downsizing of the federal government’s massive workforce, saying that he lacks the power to decide whether the dismissal of thousands of workers is lawful.

Created by President Donald Trump via executive order and led by technology mogul Elon Musk, DOGE is an advisory body tasked with identifying and reducing wasteful federal government spending.

Due to DOGE’s findings, layoffs have spread, recently reaching the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The agency has laid off thousands of probationary workers, and it is still unclear how many workers will be laid off from the agency. The IRS employees union is pushing back.

National Treasury Employees Union National (NTEU) President Doreen Greenwald said in a statement on the union website that “Indiscriminate firings of IRS employees around the country are a recipe for economic disaster.”

NTEU has several legal challenges pending over the administration’s layoffs and what they termed “other attacks on federal workers because of the severe damage that is being done to civil servants and the valuable services their agencies are tasked by Congress to provide.”

The union head called firings “arbitrary and unlawful” and said the NTEU “will keep fighting until every wrongful termination is reversed.” He went on to point out that the firings are taking place in the “middle of a tax filing season when taxpayers expect prompt customer service and smooth processing of their tax returns.”

National Park Services

The National Parks Service fired around 1,000 newly hired employees. The terminated employees worked on visitor education and park maintenance, among other things.

Some confusion has surrounded the park service move because of seasonal staffing changes. Additionally, the agency now says that it has reinstated around 5,000 seasonal jobs that were rescinded last month.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been halted entirely. The Trump administration ordered the agency which has governance over possible financial exploitation, to stop almost all of its work, effectively shutting the agency down, at least for the time being.

Agriculture Department

At the Department of Agriculture, Secretary Brooke Rollins has opened her doors to DOGE, saying that the agency “will be forthcoming.”

A spokesman for Rollins said in a statement that the company is committed to “preserving essential safety positions and will ensure that critical services remain uninterrupted. “

The department, which oversees the Forest Service, is reported to support a Trump administration directive to fire about 2,000 of its “probationary, non-firefighting employees.” It is unclear how many workers have been fired thus far.

Elon Musk speaks as President Donald Trump looks on in the Oval Office of the White House on Feb. 11, 2025. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Department of Health and Human Services

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), could lose around 6,000 employees.

Over 5,000 probationary employees are up for termination at HHS, and an additional 700 employees have been cut at the CDC. Other health agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, as well as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will lose employees, and those figures have not been released yet.

Department of Justice 

The Department of Justice (DOJ) received not just new leadership but also a culling of attorneys who worked on some of the most high-profile cases in the last few years.

More than a dozen employees who worked on federal prosecution against Trump were fired from the DOJ. While firings at the Justice Department are not unusual, career prosecutors do not typically turn over with administrations.

Department of Homeland Security 

The Department of Homeland Security also saw cuts with at least 130 of the probationary employees from their U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency fired.

Additionally, four employees from the Federal Emergency Management Agency were let go, at least in part because of the agency’s payments for New York City hotel costs for illegal immigrants.

State Department 

A number of State Department senior and lower-level officials have left their jobs at the new administration’s request. However, the number of nonpolitical appointees asked to leave was not immediately apparent.

Department of Energy 

Hundreds of Department of Energy employees working on nuclear weapons programs were laid off earlier this month, but that order was later reversed, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Officials indicated that the National Nuclear Security Administration has as many as 350 employees. It’s currently unclear how many terminations were rescinded.

Veterans Affairs

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced the dismissal of more than 1,000 employees, all of whom had been with the department for less than two years. This included researchers and those working on prosthetics projects.

Department of Education

Trump, who campaigned on the promise to disband the current Department of Education, has made it clear that he does not support the agency.

Thus far, at least 39 individuals, including student aid officials and special education specialists, have been fired from that department.

Additionally, the department’s Institute of Education Services, which tracks American students’ progress, has seen its contracts canceled, totaling $900 million.

Inspector General 

The government’s largest agencies have their own inspector generals to conduct audits and prevent fraud. Thus far, at least 17 inspector generals have been fired from these positions.

Central Intelligence Agency

A judge temporarily halted firings at the Central Intelligence Agency who were put on paid administrative leave because of their roles in the agency’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) programs.

The seal of the Central Intelligence Agency is shown at the entrance of the CIA headquarters in McLean, Va., Sept. 24, 2022. Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

District Court Judge Anthony Trenga issued a five-day stay on Feb. 18 which keeps the director of National Intelligence from firing the plaintiffs or putting them on unpaid leave while the court considers the case.

The plaintiffs said that their leave violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the First Amendment, and the Fifth Amendment, arguing that their firing lacks factual justification.

‘Deferred Resignation’ Option

Federal workers across agencies were offered a “deferred resignation” proposal, which allows them to continue to receive full salary and benefits until Sept. 30.

About 75,000 federal employees accepted the offer before the deadline on Feb. 12.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the National Treasury Employees Union National about the layoffs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.