It’s been more slash and burn this week.
When President Donald Trump took office 2.3 million federal employees kept the wheels turning, about the same as the late 1960s, even though the country’s population has increased by two-thirds. Even so, he’s determined that’s the secret to reducing our overblown budget.
Though Trump appears to receive wide support for this goal, it’s gotten off to a rocky start.
On Wednesday, the Veteran Affairs department terminated 875 contracts.
Besides affecting thousands of employees, the cuts impacted the delivery of medical care, treatment programs, disability services, and even burials for veterans. The outcry was so great, the cuts have been paused.
The VA has the most federal workers of any federal department, an estimated 480,000. So far, 2,400 have been fired. With a goal of reducing its budget by $2 billion, VA Secretary Doug Collins warned the pain has just begun.
The Pentagon has told a staggering 61,000 employees to expect pink slips.
The Environment Protection Agency is on track to eliminate 65% of its staff, an estimated 11,000 employees. Its new secretary, Lee Zeldin, does not believe greenhouse gases are related to climate change and is suggesting regulating their emissions be dropped, overturning 16 years of efforts to combat global warming.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency dismissed 1,000 employees of which more than a dozen are from its senior ranks with experience in leading disaster recovery.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the country’s climate research agency, fired hundreds on Thursday.
The Social Security Administration said it will eliminate 7,000 positions.
The Department of Education last week revoked $900 million in contracts that primarily help develop curricula for the ever-changing landscape at our nation’s schools as well as educational research.
And the U.S. Agency for International Development has essentially been shuttered, firing all of its 2,000 employees based in the U.S.
Inside the White House, Trump has handed Elon Musk the power of the purse.
On Wednesday, the president signed an executive order putting the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, in charge of reviewing all U.S. government payments, formerly the responsibility of Congress.
The “transformation,” as Trump calls it, will include oversight of every agency’s spending on contracts, grants and loans.
Of note, agencies dealing with law enforcement, defense, the military and immigration will be exempt from Musk’s purview.
