By: Ashley Bergeron & Mira Costello

Staff-Writer & Editor-in-Chief

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was created by executive order on Jan. 20, when President Trump renamed the United States Digital Service to the United States DOGE Service and established the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization within the USDS. 

While White House employee Amy Gleason is the acting administrator of the DOGE, President Trump has said that Elon Musk is “in charge” of the agency, and he is generally considered its de facto head. With a net worth of over $350 billion, Musk is the world’s wealthiest person, known for his ownership of Tesla, SpaceX and the social platform X. Musk is not an official government employee and was not elected or appointed into a senate-confirmed role; rather, he has been defined as a senior adviser to the president. 

Part of the DOGE’s controversial work has included “trimming fat” from government spending – and, of course, increasing efficiency – which has translated into mass layoffs and administrative leave placements for federal employees. As of Feb. 26, according to reporting by the New York Magazine’s Intelligencer, about 30,000 government employees have been fired or otherwise given notice since DOGE operations began, with some agency officials stepping down. 

The majority of these are probationary workers, which are employees who were either recently hired by the government or promoted to a new position and are under heightened scrutiny to determine their fitness for the job. If they were to get fired, the worker’s employer must tell them that they have failed qualifications to continue working the position.

Here are some departments that are being affected by the mass layoffs.

Environmental Protection Agency

At his first cabinet meeting, President Trump stated that the EPA would fire 65% of its staff. This was then corrected by White House spokeswoman and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin; it was actually the budget decreasing by 65%, not the staff. Even though the statistic was towards spending cuts, reducing the budget will result in job cuts. Some of the jobs that will be cut include those monitoring air and water quality, which could inhibit natural disaster response. As of Feb. 14, 388 employees had been fired from the EPA and 171 who were working in DEI and environmental justice offices had been placed on leave.

Internal Revenue Service

Over 6,000 IRS workers, about 6% of the agency’s staff, have been fired, which could decrease its capacity. Before 2022, the IRS had difficulty keeping up with tax management demands; the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in that year provided for updated technology and increased staffing for the IRS. The new cuts, especially during tax season, have some concerned about how IRS operations will be affected. 

National Institute of Health

The NIH is America’s medical research agency that makes discoveries in service of public health. They give grants and funding to students at universities who are conducting biomedical research. As of Feb. 14, about 1,500 people were laid off from NIH, part of 2,800 total layoffs in the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Trump administration had also blocked the NIH from posting any new notices in the Federal Register, the unofficial daily publication for Federal agencies and organizations. This resulted in a funding freeze where the NIH couldn’t review new grant applications. On Feb. 26, the Trump administration partially lifted up the hold, but only for early stages of the grant review process. During the freeze, about 16,000 applications vied for around $1.5 billion in funding. 

The result of the NIH job layoffs may be stagnation in biomedical research and lack of publicly available health information. The cuts could affect college-town economies, as some prestigious universities attract residents partly with NIH grants.

National Nuclear Safety Administration

The NNSA is a federal agency within the Department of Energy that protects national security through the military application of nuclear science. In other words, they take care of the nuclear weapons stockpile. Some of the employees do work with nuclear science that doesn’t involve nuclear weapons. Roughly 350 employees were laid off from the NNSA the week of Feb. 10; however, shortly after they were fired, their terminations (except for 28 workers) were rescinded, and the firings were “paused”, leading to widespread confusion in the agency. Many said they weren’t sure if they had been terminated or not, according to reporting by Geoff Brumfiel for NPR. However, the fired workers are hard to reach, as their government emails are no longer activated. Right now, it is unclear if the employees got their jobs back.

Social Security Administration

The SSA has closed two offices so far: the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity and the Office of Transformation, which focused on modernizing the SSA’s operations. The SSA plans to terminate at least 7,000 employees and potentially as many as 30,000, half of their 60,000-person workforce. Many regional Social Security sites are also slated to or have already closed. 

Beneficiaries of social security programs, including disability support and retirement benefits, may not be able to receive benefits as quickly, but the potential effects are still unclear. 

U.S. Department of Agriculture

About 4,200 employees were fired from the USDA, which included 3,400 from the Forest Service sub-agency, ranging from farm loan officers to food scientists. Veterinarians and animal health technicians were among the affected employees, but a few days after their terminations, the USDA scrambled to reverse the decisions and claimed the employees, who were working on the response to bird flu outbreaks, were fired accidentally. Understaffing at the USDA could reduce the prevention of foodborne illness and interfere with agricultural support research

Other agencies affected by layoffs

U.S. Agency for International Development: about 2,000 fired (20%) and over 8,000 others put on leave

Housing and Urban Development Community Planning and Development: about 780 fired (83%)

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: about 750 fired (6%)

National Park Service: about 1,000 fired (about 5%)

Federal Aviation Administration: about 400 fired (1%)

Department of Defense: about 5,400 slated for termination (0.8%)

Department of Veterans Affairs: about 2,400 fired (0.5%)

Federal Emergency Management Agency: at least 240 fired (about 1%)