Due to DOGE’s findings, layoffs have spread, recently reaching the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which laid off thousands of probationary workers.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has shaken up Washington, D.C., with its audits, triggering reforms and layoffs in a number of federal agencies.
On Feb. 20, a judge ruled that the Trump administration can continue its widespread firings of federal employees. The judge rejected a bid by a group of labor unions to end the current administration’s downsizing of the federal government’s massive workforce, saying that he lacks the power to decide whether the dismissal of thousands of workers is lawful.
Created by President Donald Trump via executive order and led by technology mogul Elon Musk, DOGE is an advisory body tasked with identifying and reducing wasteful federal government spending.
Due to DOGE’s findings, layoffs have spread, recently reaching the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The agency has laid off thousands of probationary workers, and it is still unclear how many workers will be laid off from the agency. The IRS employees union is pushing back.
National Treasury Employees Union National (NTEU) President Doreen Greenwald said in a statement on the union website that “Indiscriminate firings of IRS employees around the country are a recipe for economic disaster.”
NTEU has several legal challenges pending over the administration’s layoffs and what they termed “other attacks on federal workers because of the severe damage that is being done to civil servants and the valuable services their agencies are tasked by Congress to provide.”
The union head called firings “arbitrary and unlawful” and said the NTEU “will keep fighting until every wrongful termination is reversed.” He went on to point out that the firings are taking place in the “middle of a tax filing season when taxpayers expect prompt customer service and smooth processing of their tax returns.”
National Park Services
The National Parks Service fired around 1,000 newly hired employees. The terminated employees worked on visitor education and park maintenance, among other things.
Some confusion has surrounded the park service move because of seasonal staffing changes. Additionally, the agency now says that it has reinstated around 5,000 seasonal jobs that were rescinded last month.
