Agencies reconsidering job cuts, claims Trump administration

In a series of recent developments, several federal agencies are reassessing their staffing needs following the departure of significant portions of their workforces, according to OPM Senior Advisor Noah Peters. This comes after the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration the right to carry out mass dismissals of employees in some federal agencies.

The departments of State, Education, and Health and Human Services (HHS) have already initiated mass layoffs since the Supreme Court's ruling. The State department has already submitted its RIF notices, while Education and HHS are terminating employees who have previously received them. However, at HHS, some employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration's tobacco office, and Head Start remain on the rolls due to a separate injunction. The rest of the 10,000 employees who faced layoffs received termination notices on Monday.

The Trump administration has refused to make the RIF plans public, citing that the documents are still subject to change. Agencies are now walking back some of the RIF actions, according to OPM Senior Advisor Noah Peters. However, he did not specify which agencies have altered their RIF plans.

In a related development, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum in February requiring agencies to submit reorganization and RIF plans. The resulting materials, according to Peters, are "living documents that are always subject to change as agency needs and circumstances may dictate."

The Supreme Court has struck down two injunctions affecting agency RIFs, one aimed solely at the Education department and another preventing mass layoffs at most other major federal agencies. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, who issued the second injunction, is now reviewing the legality of individual agency RIF plans. Last week, Judge Illston said that final decisions on the RIFs must have been made if her injunction had paused them from taking effect.

Meanwhile, the Veterans Affairs Department has announced it will cut only 30,000 workers instead of the 80,000 it originally planned to let go and will not have to rely on RIFs to do so. In a related development, the agency for government efficiency (DOGE) was ordered by a U.S. federal judge on March 17, 2025, to reverse its planned layoffs and shutdown of the development agency USAID, including restoring email/system access and pay for employees and contractors.

Attorneys for the Justice Department have submitted a declaration from OPM Senior Advisor Noah Peters, who stated that there were initially 70 actions at 19 agencies affected by the injunction, a figure higher than the one provided to the Supreme Court.

As the situation continues to evolve, Judge Illston has indicated that she is not inclined to allow for significant redactions in the RIF plans. A related article titled "Judge says she's not done with RIF case just yet" provides further insights into the ongoing review of the legality of individual agency RIF plans. Another related article titled "VA backs down on mass layoffs, will cut 30K through attrition only" discusses the Veterans Affairs Department's decision to reduce its workforce through attrition rather than mass layoffs.