Seeking Government Efficiency Through RIFs, Hiring Restrictions, Employee Suitability Criteria

Plans by the Trump administration to restructure the federal workforce are proceeding. While a significant step was the deferred resignation program, a new Executive Order has now been issued as a follow-up to that plan. 

The deferred resignation plan initially offered deferred employees a choice of leaving government service prior to the end of the fiscal year with the ability for some to stay at home instead of going to an office, go on administrative leave, and continue to get paid until September 30, 2025.

The initial expiration date for opting into this plan was February 6th. That has been extended for a time due to a delay imposed by a federal court ruling. No one knows how the plan will fare as it goes through the judicial system.

It may get a seal of approval by a court as it goes along. It may get canceled before this major phase goes into effect. We will have to wait and see what happens in the upcoming court cases—some likely to get to the Supreme Court.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has told employees substantial reduction-in-force operations would be forthcoming. Perhaps the future is now.

President Trump has issued another Executive Order entitled Implementing the President’s Department of Government Efficiency Workforce Optimization Initiative.

The purpose of the Order is: “eliminating waste, bloat, and insularity, my Administration will empower American families, workers, taxpayers, and our system of Government itself.” This will impact most of the federal workforce in several ways.

A fact sheet issued in conjunction with the Executive Order states how the administration plans to proceed with the next steps in this project:

• Agency Heads will coordinate and consult with DOGE to shrink the size of the federal workforce and limit hiring to essential positions.
• The Office of Personnel Management will initiate a rulemaking to ensure federal employees are held to the highest standards of conduct.
• The Order will significantly reduce the size of the federal government.
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New Guidance for Agencies to Reduce the Size of Government

The directive in the latest Executive Order is not a big surprise. Agencies from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Department of Education are already undergoing major changes and a reduction in staffing and spending.

Hiring Ratio

The Office of Management and Budget is being directed to develop a plan to require each agency to hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart government service, consistent with exemptions in the plan. The restrictions will not apply to public safety, immigration enforcement, or law enforcement.

Hiring Approval

Agency Heads are to develop a plan, in consultation with its DOGE Team Lead, to ensure new career appointment hires are in those areas where the agency needs are the greatest.

Hiring Restrictions

Agencies are directed not to fill vacancies for career appointments that the DOGE Team Lead determines should not be filled—unless the Agency Head approves filling any of these positions.

Reductions in Force

Agency heads are directed to undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force (RIFs), and to separate from federal service temporary employees and reemployed annuitants working in areas likely subject to the RIFs. There will be a priority for RIFs in organizations that the administration suspends or closes and employees in functions not mandated by statute or law who are not typically designated as essential during a lapse in appropriations.

Suitability Criteria for Federal Employees

The Executive Order directs OPM to initiate a rule proposing to include additional suitability criteria. These will include:

• Timely filing of tax returns
• Citizenship requirements
• Refusal to certify compliance with nondisclosure obligations and failing to follow these compliance obligations
• Theft or misuse of government resources and equipment or negligent loss of government resources and equipment

Looking for New Targets

The final portion of the Executive Order requires Agency Heads to “submit to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget a report that identifies any statutes that establish the agency, or subcomponents of the agency, as statutorily required entities. The report shall discuss whether the agency or any of its subcomponents should be eliminated or consolidated.”

In other words, determine which portions of each agency are required to exist as a result of legislative action. Based on what has occurred in the last several weeks, those portions of agencies or organizations that were created as a result of administrative action are going to be scrutinized closely for possible elimination.

The Unnecessary Footprint of the Federal Government

The Fact Sheet accompanying the Executive Order references the “unnecessary footprint” of government. It states:

• There are too many federal employees.
  • Excluding active-duty military and Postal Service employees, the federal workforce exceeds 2.4 million.
  • No one knows exactly how many federal agencies exist, but the Federal Register lists over 400.
• The federal workforce contributes significantly to federal spending and debt.
  • In fiscal year 2022, the federal government spent nearly $300 billion on compensation for civilian employees, excluding pensions.
  • According to a recent congressional report, only 6% of federal workers report to work in-person on a full-time basis.

Conclusion

There was no real doubt about the general approach that would be taken to reduce the size and the structure of the federal civil service system. The rapidity of the project’s progress and its impact on the federal workforce are probably surprising to many employees.