White House sets deadline for agency-downsizing plans

The Trump administration has given most government agencies a little more than two weeks to come up with plans for “significant” headcount reductions.

In a memo issued Wednesday, the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management directed agencies to submit plans for reducing staff and slashing costs by March 13. The agencies will then have several months to implement these strategies.

The directive, which came directly from OMB Director Russell Vought and Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell, provides guidelines for how agencies should satisfy President Donald Trump’s executive order on “workforce optimization” from earlier this month.

Describing the federal government as “costly, inefficient and deeply in debt,” the memo stated that the changes are in accordance with Trump’s electoral mandate.

“The American people registered their verdict on the bloated, corrupt federal bureaucracy on November 5, 2024, by voting for President Trump and his promises to sweepingly reform the federal government,” it reads.

The document outlines a two-phase process, with the first focusing on cost reductions. 

During this phase, it states, agencies should maintain hiring freezes and shrink payrolls in various ways, including eliminating positions not mandated by law, firing underperforming workers, allowing temporary positions to expire and not filling vacancies that arise through retirements or other voluntary separations. It also urges them to pursue new collective bargaining agreements with employee unions.

Agencies must also review through their functions to ensure all their activities are statutorily required and eliminate or consolidate non-mandatory functions.

During the second phase, agencies are to “outline a positive vision for more productive, efficient agency operations going forward.” The deadline for submitting these plans is April 14. Agencies will then have until Sept. 30 to implement these changes.

Law enforcement agencies, including border patrol and immigration enforcement, are excluded from the directive. So are the armed forces, presidential appointees, the executive offices and the Post Office.

In a separate action, Trump directed government agencies to make changes to their payments processes. In an executive order issued Wednesday evening, Trump stated that all agencies must build “centralized technological” systems with the assistance of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE — formerly known as the U.S. Digital Service — to record payments of covered contracts and grants. These systems must also include a “brief, written justification for each payment submitted by the agency employee who approved the payment.” Agency heads must also be able to use these systems to quickly review, pause or cancel payments. 

The order comes as DOGE, a special audit group being overseen by White House advisor Elon Musk, combs through government contracts in search of cost savings. The group says it has canceled more than $65 billion of contracts, though some outside reviews of the DOGE’s work say the actual savings is far lower. 

Trump’s latest executive order appears to be a response to Musk’s complaints that many government payments are improperly coded.