Federal agencies told to submit "reorganization plans," prepare for mass firings

The federal offices in charge of personnel and budget on Wednesday issued a memo to government agencies to submit "reorganization plans" and prepare for large-scale firings.

In the memo, which was obtained by CBS News, the Office of Management and Budget along with the Office of Personnel Management asked agencies to submit these plans by March 13 and to prepare for "reductions in force."

"Agencies should also seek to consolidate areas of the agency organization chart that are duplicative; consolidate management layers where unnecessary layers exist; seek reductions in components and positions that are non-critical; implement technological solutions that automate routine tasks while enabling staff to focus on higher-value activities; close and/or consolidate regional field offices to the extent consistent with efficient service delivery; and maximally reduce the use of outside consultants and contractors," the memo says. "When taking these actions, agencies should align closures and/or relocation of bureaus and offices with agency return-to-office actions to avoid multiple relocation benefit costs for individual employees."

The news of the memo was first reported by CNN. 

The memo is the latest in a series of directives from the Elon Musk-helmed Department of Government Efficiency, which has caused chaos across government agencies since its creation via an executive order from President Trump on Inauguration Day. 

DOGE, which Mr. Trump and Musk said would eliminate government waste, has been going through data systems at agencies, identifying thousands of jobs as redundant or unaligned with the administration's views, prompting mass terminations by federal agency heads. In extreme cases, whole agencies such as USAID have been on the chopping block, although DOGE's actions and constitutionality have been questioned in court. 

Over the weekend, Musk posted on his social media site X that all federal employees had received an email with the subject line "What did you do last week?" and directed recipients to list five bullet points by 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday or be fired. Although several high-profile members of the administration posted on social media that they had answered — including White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt — other agency heads said they had directed their employees not to respond. The White House later said each agency could decide if employees had to reply. 

Musk's role at the helm of the agency has been in question, with the administration denying he was is the DOGE administrator — a role specified in Mr. Trump's executive order creating the agency. On Tuesday, the White House said Amy Gleason is the administrator of DOGE, although Justice Department attorneys had said in court papers that they did not know who the administrator is. 

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By Kristin Brown, Caroline Linton