By Tim Reid
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump has signed a series of executive orders and taken other actions since his inauguration on January 20 to remake and reduce the size of the United States’ 2.2 million-strong federal workforce.
The moves include offering buyouts to most government workers, dismissing or reassigning hundreds of officials, removing agency watchdogs, and issuing an order that could make it easier to fire thousands of civil servants. He has appointed the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, as a “special government employee” to oversee a drastic overhaul of the federal workforce.
Here are some of the actions Trump and his Republican administration have taken so far.
BUYOUT OFFERS
The Trump administration has offered buyouts to 2.3 million civilian full-time federal workers, including the entire workforce of the Central Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies.
The “deferred resignation program” affecting the civilian workers would allow federal employees to remain on the payroll through September 30 but without having to work in person and possibly having their duties reduced or eliminated in the meantime, according to an email sent to federal employees.
A U.S. judge on February 6 temporarily blocked the proposed buyout for federal workers until at least February 10, giving an initial win to labor unions who have sued to stop it.
FUNDING FREEZE
The Trump administration issued a memo pausing potentially trillions of dollars in federal aid, sowing chaos throughout the government and stirring fears that it would disrupt thousands of federal grant programs that serve tens of millions of Americans.
A federal judge temporarily halted the directive, and then extended that pause, after several advocacy groups argued the freeze would devastate programs ranging from health care to road construction.
The Trump administration faces another legal challenge from Democratic state attorneys general. In a separate lawsuit, they argue that the freeze violates the U.S. Constitution and would have a devastating effect on states that rely on federal aid for a substantial portion of their budgets.
GOVERNMENT WATCHDOGS
Trump has fired 17 inspectors general at multiple government agencies, a move that clears the way to replace independent watchdogs with loyalists.
The inspectors general at agencies including the departments of State, Defense and Transportation were notified by emails from the White House personnel director that they had been terminated immediately.
The dismissals appeared to violate federal law because the U.S. Congress was not given a 30-day notice or a reason for the firings, the independent Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency said in a letter to the White House.
CUTTING THE SIZE OF THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE
Trump ordered federal workers back to the office full-time and agencies to take steps to halt remote work arrangements.
He issued a freeze on federal hiring, except for military, immigration enforcement, national security and public safety jobs.
He reinstated his first-term Schedule F executive order, which would strip potentially hundreds of thousands of government workers of employment protections and make them easier to fire.
In a memo from the acting director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, agency heads were asked to identify employees on probationary periods, or who have served less than two years. Such employees are easier to fire.
CHANGING THE MISSION AT KEY AGENCIES
About 20 senior career attorneys at the Justice Department, including environmental, criminal, national security, civil rights lawyers, and some immigration court staff, have been reassigned.
Some of those have been sent to a newly created Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group, as Trump tries to stop state and city government officials from resisting his plans to crack down on illegal immigration.
The administration also launched an additional round of cuts at the Justice Department that appeared to focus on FBI agents and others who worked on cases related to the January 6, 2021, attack by Trump’s supporters on the U.S. Capitol.
The Justice Department has also ordered prosecutors to consider pursuing criminal cases against state and local officials who refuse to cooperate with federal immigration agents.
The department also issued a freeze on new civil rights litigation.
The Trump administration has halted all pending environmental litigation, according to two sources familiar with the matter and a pair of memos seen by Reuters.
REVIEW OF FEMA
Trump has ordered a review of the Federal Emergency Management Agency as he considers whether to close or reshape the country’s lead federal disaster response agency.
Trump has accused FEMA of bungling emergency relief efforts and said he preferred that states be given federal money to handle disasters themselves. Democrats and other critics say he is politicizing disaster relief aid.
FIRINGS
Trump says he plans to fire over 1,000 officials appointed by his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden.
On his first full day in office the heads of the U.S. Coast Guard and Transportation Security Administration were fired along with other officials.
Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Lee Fagan, the first female uniformed leader of an armed forces branch, was removed in part for what a Department of Homeland Security official said was her excessive focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies.
Trump fired two Democratic officials at the National Labor Relations Board, a major shakeup that will bring hundreds of cases accusing companies of unlawful labor practices to a standstill and paves the way for Republican control of the agency.
He also fired at least two Democratic members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces federal laws banning workplace discrimination, as well as the head of the top U.S. watchdog agency for consumer finance.
At the White House National Security Council, 160 staff members have been sent home.
GOVERNMENT DIVERSITY PROGRAMS
Trump signed an order calling for the elimination of government diversity programs. That includes the ending of all federal offices and jobs related to DEI.
In a memo released on January 21 the Trump administration said all federal DEI office staff would be placed on paid leave by 5 p.m. the following day, because their offices were being closed.
The order directs the administration to review which federal contractors have provided DEI training materials to government agencies and revokes the Equal Employment Opportunity order signed in 1965 by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Trump directed agencies to stop using gender identity or preferred pronouns.
Federal workers have been told to report colleagues who may seek to continue DEI programs.
DIRECTION CHANGE AT PENTAGON
Trump has signed orders to remove DEI directives from the military, reinstate thousands of troops who were kicked out for refusing COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, and take aim at transgender troops.
One of the executive orders signed by Trump said that expressing a “gender identity” different from an individual’s sex at birth did not meet military standards. Transgender rights groups have filed a lawsuit against the order.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has promised to bring major changes to the Pentagon. Reuters has previously reported about the possibility of mass firing among top brass, something Hegseth repeatedly refused to rule out during his confirmation hearings.
OVERHAULING USAID
The Trump administration announced that it is going to put on leave all directly hired employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development globally and recall thousands of personnel working overseas.
USAID is Washington’s primary humanitarian agency and distributes billions of dollars worth of aid abroad. The overhaul comes as Trump moves to merge USAID with the State Department and effectively dismantle the agency as an independent entity.
(Reporting by Tim Reid in Washington; Additional reporting by Helen Coster in New York; Editing by Ross Colvin, David Gregorio and Matthew Lewis)
