Layoffs accelerate at federal agencies with more cuts coming : NPR

Federal agencies are accelerating layoffs and planning for even more cuts as the Trump administration moves quickly to slash the government workforce.

The Pentagon and the Department of Housing and Urban Development are gearing up for budget cuts and staff reductions, while layoffs hit employees at the Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday, multiple sources told NPR, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A sweeping wave of terminations has already affected thousands of employees at agencies including the Veterans Affairs, Energy, and Education Departments. This week President Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to prepare for “large-scale” reductions in force.

Many of the first to be cut are those still in a probationary period because they were recently hired or are long-serving employees who were moved or promoted into a new position. In many cases they have fewer job protections.

“The probationary period is a continuation of the job application process, not an entitlement for permanent employment,” a spokesperson for the federal Office of Personnel Management said in a statement. “Agencies are taking independent action in light of the recent hiring freeze and in support of the President’s broader efforts to restructure and streamline the federal government to better serve the American people at the highest possible standard.”

Laid-off federal workers have begun sharing their stories on LinkedIn, as they changed their status to #OpenToWork.

“I was a ‘consumer protection cop’ thrown off the beat by DOGE,” wrote Taylor Sonne, who worked as a compliance examiner with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for 11 months before being fired on Tuesday, one month before his probation would have ended.

Based in Houston, Sonne traveled the country in search of unfair, deceptive or abusive practices at financial institutions.

“I feel like it is such an important agency for every single American,” he told NPR. “It truly is a nonpartisan mission, which is unfortunate that it’s been so heavily politicized.”

HUD aims to slash half of staff

Officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development have set a target of laying off half the agency’s staff, according to one HUD staffer with direct knowledge of the plans and a union leader who has spoken with others.

Agency officials said some areas would be spared, while others could face even higher targets of cutting around 75% of staff. One HUD staffer said when officials first learned these numbers they looked visibly distraught, and described them as “drastic” and “shocking.” The staffer was later told of the targets in a meeting. They spoke to NPR on condition they not be named for fear of retribution in their job.

Antonio Gaines, president of HUD Council 222 of the American Federation of Government Employees, was told of these targets by three officials with direct knowledge of them, but who also declined to be named for fear of retribution. He said the union had reached out to the Trump administration multiple times to negotiate the downsizing, as its contract requires, but had been rebuffed.

HUD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Department of Defense targets a big budget cut

The Pentagon is targeting an 8% cut to its more than $800 billion budget next year, including staff reductions, according to officials who were not authorized to speak publicly and provided details on condition of anonymity.

Targets will likely include the workforce, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth already said has grown too much.

USDA: Supervisors given no notice of layoffs

At the Department of Agriculture, layoffs hit employees working in areas including animal and plant health inspection, farmland conservation, and agricultural research, according to three USDA employees who spoke to NPR anonymously because they’re not authorized to speak for the agency and fear retaliation.

The USDA cuts included probationary employees as well as some longer-serving staff on fixed contracts, the USDA sources said.

A USDA supervisor said they only learned that staffers they oversaw were being terminated when the staffers told they they received notices late on Thursday.

“I received nothing, no notifications, no messages from HR,” the supervisor said.

A termination notice sent to one of the supervisor’s probationary employees and seen by NPR said: “The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest.”

A 2021 file photo of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. The agency is laying of 10% of its workforce.

Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images

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Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images

“I don’t know how they can say that when their supervisors were never consulted,” the supervisor said.

The USDA didn’t respond to a request for comment. In a speech on Friday, newly appointed Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the agency would work with the White House and Congress to “focus USDA on its core missions of supporting American farming, ranching, and forestry.”

10% of CDC staff cut

About 1,300 workers were being cut on Friday at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, amounting to 10% of its total staff, according to two agency employees who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak for the agency

As at other agencies, the CDC layoffs are targeting probationary employees — a broad category that includes recent hires and long-time staffers who were recently moved to a new position at the agency.

Andrew Nixon, director of communications at the Department of Health and Human Services, wrote in an email to NPR: “HHS is following the Administration’s guidance and taking action to support the President’s broader efforts to restructure and streamline the federal government. This is to ensure that HHS better serves the American people at the highest and most efficient standard.”

More cuts at CFPB

Some 70-100 employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were laid off Thursday evening, according to three current employees with knowledge of the situation who did not want to be identified for fear of also being fired. They follow another 73 employees who were terminated earlier in the week.

The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents CFPB staff, filed for an administrative stay and a temporary restraining order on Friday. In the filing, attorneys for the union argue that the dismantling of CFPB is illegal.

“Neither the President nor his appointees have the constitutional authority to eliminate an agency created by statute,” they write, pointing to the numerous mandatory duties imposed on the agency by Congress. “Only Congress—not the Executive Branch—has the power to eliminate those duties or dissolve the agency created to perform them.”

NPR’s Tom Bowman, Will Stone, and Pien Huang contributed reporting