US agencies face Thursday deadline to submit mass layoff plans

13/3/2025 18:20

The potential scale of President Donald Trump's efforts to shrink the U.S. federal government could become clearer on Thursday, the deadline for government agencies to submit plans for a second wave of mass layoffs and to slash their budgets.



Agencies ranging from the Treasury Department to the Justice Department are required to submit their cost-cutting proposals to the White House and the Office of Personnel Management, the government's human resources department, kicking off a process that could eliminate tens of thousands of federal jobs.

This new round of layoffs marks the latest step in Trump's sweeping effort to remake the federal bureaucracy - a task he has largely put in the hands of tech billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency.



So far, DOGE has overseen cuts of more than 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian workforce, the freezing of foreign aid, and the canceling of thousands of programs and contracts. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed by labor unions and others challenging the legality of those moves, with mixed success.