OPM signals broad agency layoffs, reorganization in new memo
The Trump administration is asking federal agencies to submit reductions in force and reorganization plans by March 13, setting the stage for more workforce terminations.
A memo from the Office of Personnel Management sent Wednesday tells agency heads that their plans to reduce the workforce and reorganize departments are required to comply with the executive to implement the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency and its mission to optimize the federal workforce. Agencies have to seek reductions in non-critical agency components and enable staff to focus on “higher-value activities,” the memo states.
The department heads are encouraged to collaborate with agency-assigned DOGE counterparts on the agency RIF and reorganization plans (ARRPs), identifying specific competitive areas where positions are not typically designated as essential during appropriation lapses. In the second phase of the ARRP, agencies also have to share plans to “reduce cost and promote efficiencies through improved technology, including through the adoption of new software or systems and elimination of duplicative systems.”
“The federal government is costly, inefficient and deeply in debt,” the memo states. “At the same time, it is not producing results for the American public. Instead, tax dollars are being siphoned off to fund unproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hard-working American citizens.”
Agency subcomponents and offices that provide direct services to citizens should also be included in the ARRPs, with details on those performing functions not mandated by statute or regulation. The memo also asks agency leaders to consider changes that would result in the elimination or consolidation of subcomponents, and what tools the agency needs to achieve efficiencies.
Agencies must share programs and components that are excluded from the plan, with a justification, and changes to regulations and agency policies through notice-and-comment rulemaking.
The memo states that exclusions to the guidance include positions that are necessary to meet public safety responsibilities and military personnel. The U.S. Postal Service, the executive office of the president and political appointees are also safe from the reductions in force.
The OPM memo came the same day President Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting, which featured remarks from Elon Musk about the DOGE’s mission.
Musk, who called himself “tech support” during the meeting, also addressed the press regarding the OPM email that asked federal employees to list their accomplishments over the last week or risk termination. Musk called the email a “pulse check review” and warned that “we’re going to send another email.”
Musk said the email only got a partial response.
Trump added that those who haven’t responded to the email are “on the bubble,” and that “maybe they’re going to be gone.”
