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Thousands of federal workers lose jobs, more jobs expected to continue

Politiko 2025-02-14 19:54:21

Thousands of federal workers lose jobs, more jobs expected to continue

The campaign by President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk for radical cuts to U.S. government employees expanded further Friday with the loss of jobs for thousands of employees working in multiple sectors, from the country's nuclear weapons to veteran care.

About 1,200 to 2,000 Energy Department employees were cut, including hundreds of employees of the office that oversees nuclear weapons stockpiles, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

That added to the wave of cuts at departments like that of Veterans Affairs, the Education Department and the Small Business Administration.

Officials from the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees federal hiring, met with agencies on Thursday, advising them to fire employees in probationary periods, according to a person familiar with the matter.

According to government data, about 280,000 employees, out of the federal government's total of 2.3 million civil servants, were hired over the past two years, meaning most are still in probationary period and could be cut more easily.

The actions at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau signal that a wider range of people is being targeted than just probationary employees, the sources said, and that contracts of some employees with a specific deadline have been terminated.

President Trump says the federal government is too bloated and that too much money has been lost through embezzlement and fraud. The federal government's debt is at about $36 trillion and ran a $1.8 trillion deficit last year. There is also bipartisan agreement on the need to reform the government.

But Democratic lawmakers say Trump is intimating the legislative's constitutional authority over federal spending, even though his fellow Republicans, who hold a majority in both chambers of Congress, have generally supported the measures.

"I believe Secretary Collins when he says there will be no impact on providing care, benefits and services to veterans with this plan," Republican Rep. Mike Bost, who chairs the House committee that oversees the Department of Veterans Affairs, said in a statement Friday, referring to the department's chairman. Secretary Doug Collins. The department said Thursday it was laying off over 1,000 employees.

The full extent of the dismissals is still completely unclear, but at least about 6,000 employees across seven departments and agencies were laid off this week, according to reports from Reuters news agency and other media.

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