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By: FEDweek StaffAn increasing focus is being put on both the numbers and potential impacts of cuts in federal employment even as uncertainty continues over where and how deeply additional cuts will fall.
An assessment by the Democratic staff of a Senate investigations subcommittee estimates that above 68,000 employees face separation by RIF, under plans already announced. That’s in addition to more than 25,000 probationary employees and more than 7,000 other employees already on administrative leave pending RIF separations and some 3,000 who took buyout separation incentive payments, it said.
The report further noted an OPM statement that “hundreds of thousands” of employees have accepted deferred resignation—on administrative leave pending resignation or retirement generally by September 30—saying that would mean at least 125,000 beyond the 75,000 that OPM earlier said had accepted. OPM more recently put actual acceptances at just above 150,000.
The report estimated the total cost of those actions, including administrative overhead, severance pay, benefits and more at above $21 billion (which would be reduced by about $3 billion under its calculations using the lower figure for deferred resignations). It said the costs have been accompanied by “severe erosion of agency capacity, leaving vital institutions hobbled and unable to perform core functions” and that “will inevitably force a greater reliance on contractors.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, has asked inspectors general to conduct similar reviews at more than 50 departments and agencies.
“The subcommittee’s findings make clear that much more needs to be understood about the true consequences of DOGE’s activities,” he wrote. “In particular, I ask that you review the financial impact of the reorganization of federal agencies through mass layoffs, the canceling of grants, contracts, and other projects for partisan reasons, and the stifling of income-generating activities.”
In a blog post, OPM director Scott Kupor said the costs are “a direct result of the legal and bureaucratic muddle we operate in” and that the deferred resignation program “was a necessary step toward a smarter, leaner, more effective government. If that ruffles a few feathers in Washington, so be it.” OPM said in a statement
“If the federal government had a modern, at-will employment framework like most employers, we wouldn’t need complex workarounds or face sky-high administrative overhead just to get things done,” he said.
An OPM spokesperson further asserted that “the deferred resignation program was not only legal, it provided over 150,000 civil servants a dignified and generous departure from the federal government.”
Tracking the Slashing
Meanwhile, the Partnership for Public Service has launched a “Federal Harms Tracker” of job cuts since the start of the Trump administration, showing a loss of just under 149,000 through July 21. That includes more than 31,000 at Treasury—mostly at the IRS—21,000 at Agriculture, 20,000 at Defense, 13,000 at HHS and nearly10,000 at USAID.
“This campaign to weaken the federal civil service has targeted the very people who keep our government running and provide essential services that we all rely on every day . . . This rapid loss of institutional knowledge and operational capacity has already begun to affect how, and how well, the government functions,” the Partnership said.
Further RIFs and reorganizations remain a moving target at many agencies, as they tally the effect of deferred resignation and other incentives for employees to leave voluntarily—in many cases by the end of September. Another factor is uncertainty over agency budgets for the fiscal year starting October 1 and the potential impact of spending restrictions in the bills that have made some progress.
For example, an appropriations bill covering the IRS would reject additional funding the administration requested for customer service even amid cuts elsewhere. However, the IRS meanwhile has issued a budget justification document saying that without that funding, a level-of-service measure “would plummet” to a rating of only 16 in the 2026 filing season, compared with 87 in this year’s season.
Meanwhile, several agencies are trying to assess potential effect of reorganizations already announced. Agriculture Department officials told a Senate hearing that they expect the majority of employees to remain in their jobs through upcoming moves and consolidations affecting thousands of employees in the national capital area, reducing the need for layoffs.
That met a skeptical reaction from some Democrats who pointed out that in two relocations of Agriculture Department components during the first Trump administration, only about a third of employees accepted relocation. The AFGE union echoed that view, calling the reorganization a “deliberate dismantling of core federal capabilities that have protected and nourished the American public for over a century.”
Numbers, Impact of Federal Job Cuts Draw Increasing Scrutiny
Court Lifts Last Remaining Ban on Executive Order against Unions
OPM Limits Length of Paid Leave in Reorgs—Starting Next Year
Financial, Health and Other Costs of Whistleblowing Cited, Even When Settling
Congress Leaving Key Policy, Funding Decisions to the Fall
OPM Tells Agencies to Allow ‘Religious Expression’ in Federal Workplace
Agency RIFs, Reorganizations Starting to Take Shape
See also,
OPM Guidance Addresses How Veterans’ Preference Applies in RIFs
Top 10 Provisions in the Big Beautiful Bill of Interest to Federal Employees
A Pre-RIF Checklist for Every Federal Employee, From a Federal Employment Attorney
Work Longer or Take the FERS Supplement Now: Which is Better?
