Trump memo orders ‘large-scale’ federal layoffs in sweeping agency cuts

The Trump administration has directed federal agencies to “initiate large-scale” layoffs and create reorganization plans.

A memo, sent by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management Charles Ezell, calls for agencies to make the changes by mid-March.

“The federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt,” the memo said. “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 hardworking American citizens,” it said.

The memo says agencies should “focus on maximum elimination of functions that are not statutorily mandated,” like duplicate programs or unnecessary management layers and positions that are “non-critical.”

It also calls for regional field offices to be closed or consolidated.

The plan is a part of the Trump administration’s push to restructure the government and cut out waste.

Phase 1, which focuses on cuts and reductions should be submitted by March 13, according to the memo. Phase 2, which will focus on the productivity of the agency, should be submitted by April 14, for implementation by late September.

It notes that any position that is necessary for law enforcement and public safety, border and national security, immigration enforcement, positions nominated and appointed by the president or Senate and officials in the Executive Office of the President, along with the military and the postal service are exempt from review.

Similarly, agencies that provide services to citizens, such as Social Security, Medicare and veterans’s services are also excluded.

Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia Democrat, and ranking member of the committee on oversight and government reform, called the restructuring of the agencies an “unlawful plan.”

“The mass indiscriminate firing of hundreds of thousands of dedicated, nonpartisan civil servants by a wannabe strongman and his unelected pet billionaire will have an immediate and devastating impact on the integrity and capability of our federal workforce,” said Mr. Connolly, whose district in the Washington suburbs of Fairfax and Prince William counties has a heavy concentration of government workers.