ripple effects from government employment/contracting uncertainty in DMV economy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This new EO will complete destroy the economy in the DC metro and the US at large. Requiring that agencies get rid of 4 employees for every 1 employee they hire. This rule basically mandates that government agencies reduce their staff by 8% each year. In combination with mass scale RIFs you are easily looking at a 30-50% decline in the federal workforce. In combination with the proposed budget cuts of 250 billion per year, you are looking at job losses in excess of 3 million people for the US. This does not even consider the spillover effects of employed people cutting back on spending due to lower consumer confidence. It will be an unmitigated economic disaster that is completely self inflicted.

Deflation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This new EO will complete destroy the economy in the DC metro and the US at large. Requiring that agencies get rid of 4 employees for every 1 employee they hire. This rule basically mandates that government agencies reduce their staff by 8% each year. In combination with mass scale RIFs you are easily looking at a 30-50% decline in the federal workforce. In combination with the proposed budget cuts of 250 billion per year, you are looking at job losses in excess of 3 million people for the US. This does not even consider the spillover effects of employed people cutting back on spending due to lower consumer confidence. It will be an unmitigated economic disaster that is completely self inflicted.

Curious though how many of the 2MM feds in total are impacted.

This EO excludes any agencies dealing with security and immigration…so excludes border agents, ICE, TSA, probably a decent amount of FBI (they may replace agents but doesn’t sound like they will be reduced), assume Himeland is excluded, assume NSA and CIA excluded (again they may replace CIA agents but not sure there will be less).

Then you have air traffic control which needs to hire people, USPS (I guess they could reduce this) and then VA hospitals and the people administering VA benefits (VA and benefits is 600,000 federal workers alone).

So seems like all of the above are easily 1 MM employees if not more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This new EO will complete destroy the economy in the DC metro and the US at large. Requiring that agencies get rid of 4 employees for every 1 employee they hire. This rule basically mandates that government agencies reduce their staff by 8% each year. In combination with mass scale RIFs you are easily looking at a 30-50% decline in the federal workforce. In combination with the proposed budget cuts of 250 billion per year, you are looking at job losses in excess of 3 million people for the US. This does not even consider the spillover effects of employed people cutting back on spending due to lower consumer confidence. It will be an unmitigated economic disaster that is completely self inflicted.

Curious though how many of the 2MM feds in total are impacted.

This EO excludes any agencies dealing with security and immigration…so excludes border agents, ICE, TSA, probably a decent amount of FBI (they may replace agents but doesn’t sound like they will be reduced), assume Himeland is excluded, assume NSA and CIA excluded (again they may replace CIA agents but not sure there will be less).

Then you have air traffic control which needs to hire people, USPS (I guess they could reduce this) and then VA hospitals and the people administering VA benefits (VA and benefits is 600,000 federal workers alone).

So seems like all of the above are easily 1 MM employees if not more.

Trump has said defense will be cut. White House has about 2,000 and Congress has 10,000. This does not include the 6.8 million contractors. You can mix and match to get your own 1.2 million.

Department of Veterans Affairs
486,522
Department of Homeland Security
222,539
Department of the Army
221,037
Department of the Navy
216,537
Department of the Air Force
168,505
Department of Defense
156,803
Department of Agriculture
92,072
Department of the Interior
62,890
Department of Heath and Human Services
91,058
Social Security Administration
59,227
Department of Justice
116,614
Department of the Treasury
108,869
Department of Transportation
55,806
Department of Commerce
47,650
EnvironmentalProtection Agency
16,450
Department of State
14,316
Department of Labor
14,730
General Services Administration
12,939
Small Business Administration
7,925
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
18,073
Department of Energy
16,846
Department of Housing and Urban Development
8,825
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
6,189
Agencies and departments with fewer than 5,000 employees are shown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This new EO will complete destroy the economy in the DC metro and the US at large. Requiring that agencies get rid of 4 employees for every 1 employee they hire. This rule basically mandates that government agencies reduce their staff by 8% each year. In combination with mass scale RIFs you are easily looking at a 30-50% decline in the federal workforce. In combination with the proposed budget cuts of 250 billion per year, you are looking at job losses in excess of 3 million people for the US. This does not even consider the spillover effects of employed people cutting back on spending due to lower consumer confidence. It will be an unmitigated economic disaster that is completely self inflicted.

Curious though how many of the 2MM feds in total are impacted.

This EO excludes any agencies dealing with security and immigration…so excludes border agents, ICE, TSA, probably a decent amount of FBI (they may replace agents but doesn’t sound like they will be reduced), assume Himeland is excluded, assume NSA and CIA excluded (again they may replace CIA agents but not sure there will be less).

Then you have air traffic control which needs to hire people, USPS (I guess they could reduce this) and then VA hospitals and the people administering VA benefits (VA and benefits is 600,000 federal workers alone).

So seems like all of the above are easily 1 MM employees if not more.

They offered a buyout to the entirety of CIA, so don't assume CIA (or really FBI) is excluded. I wouldn't assume DOD is excluded either, since it can't be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This new EO will complete destroy the economy in the DC metro and the US at large. Requiring that agencies get rid of 4 employees for every 1 employee they hire. This rule basically mandates that government agencies reduce their staff by 8% each year. In combination with mass scale RIFs you are easily looking at a 30-50% decline in the federal workforce. In combination with the proposed budget cuts of 250 billion per year, you are looking at job losses in excess of 3 million people for the US. This does not even consider the spillover effects of employed people cutting back on spending due to lower consumer confidence. It will be an unmitigated economic disaster that is completely self inflicted.

Curious though how many of the 2MM feds in total are impacted.

This EO excludes any agencies dealing with security and immigration…so excludes border agents, ICE, TSA, probably a decent amount of FBI (they may replace agents but doesn’t sound like they will be reduced), assume Himeland is excluded, assume NSA and CIA excluded (again they may replace CIA agents but not sure there will be less).

Then you have air traffic control which needs to hire people, USPS (I guess they could reduce this) and then VA hospitals and the people administering VA benefits (VA and benefits is 600,000 federal workers alone).

So seems like all of the above are easily 1 MM employees if not more.

They are pretending to care about the VA and national defense but they fully intend to cut these jobs as well. They are making people that were hired remotely ( in the VA and DoD) and have worked remotely for years RTO (who don’t live within 300 miles of their office) RTO. The administration is using COVID era occupancy data to justify eliminating half of the federal office portfolio while simultaneously requiring everyone to go back 5 days a week. Most agencies don’t have room for their employees to work from the office 5 days a week, if they eliminate 50% of the existing offices. Telework has been a thing for two decades in many gov agencies and they procured office spaces under the assumption that most employees would be in the office around 3 days a week. There is literally no space for 100% RTO. The plan is to eliminate at least 50% of the federal workforce if the GSA is requiring agencies to reduce the office portfolio by 50%. They are probably targeting closer to 75% reductions, they don’t care if the government functions at all and they are actively trying to destroy it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This new EO will complete destroy the economy in the DC metro and the US at large. Requiring that agencies get rid of 4 employees for every 1 employee they hire. This rule basically mandates that government agencies reduce their staff by 8% each year. In combination with mass scale RIFs you are easily looking at a 30-50% decline in the federal workforce. In combination with the proposed budget cuts of 250 billion per year, you are looking at job losses in excess of 3 million people for the US. This does not even consider the spillover effects of employed people cutting back on spending due to lower consumer confidence. It will be an unmitigated economic disaster that is completely self inflicted.

Curious though how many of the 2MM feds in total are impacted.

This EO excludes any agencies dealing with security and immigration…so excludes border agents, ICE, TSA, probably a decent amount of FBI (they may replace agents but doesn’t sound like they will be reduced), assume Himeland is excluded, assume NSA and CIA excluded (again they may replace CIA agents but not sure there will be less).

Then you have air traffic control which needs to hire people, USPS (I guess they could reduce this) and then VA hospitals and the people administering VA benefits (VA and benefits is 600,000 federal workers alone).

So seems like all of the above are easily 1 MM employees if not more.

They are pretending to care about the VA and national defense but they fully intend to cut these jobs as well. They are making people that were hired remotely ( in the VA and DoD) and have worked remotely for years RTO (who don’t live within 300 miles of their office) RTO. The administration is using COVID era occupancy data to justify eliminating half of the federal office portfolio while simultaneously requiring everyone to go back 5 days a week. Most agencies don’t have room for their employees to work from the office 5 days a week, if they eliminate 50% of the existing offices. Telework has been a thing for two decades in many gov agencies and they procured office spaces under the assumption that most employees would be in the office around 3 days a week. There is literally no space for 100% RTO. The plan is to eliminate at least 50% of the federal workforce if the GSA is requiring agencies to reduce the office portfolio by 50%. They are probably targeting closer to 75% reductions, they don’t care if the government functions at all and they are actively trying to destroy it.

Literally no jobs are safe from this plan to slash and burn the entire government. Good luck getting your social security or Medicare benefits. There won’t be anyone to make sure benefits are paid if you fire almost all of the employees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This new EO will complete destroy the economy in the DC metro and the US at large. Requiring that agencies get rid of 4 employees for every 1 employee they hire. This rule basically mandates that government agencies reduce their staff by 8% each year. In combination with mass scale RIFs you are easily looking at a 30-50% decline in the federal workforce. In combination with the proposed budget cuts of 250 billion per year, you are looking at job losses in excess of 3 million people for the US. This does not even consider the spillover effects of employed people cutting back on spending due to lower consumer confidence. It will be an unmitigated economic disaster that is completely self inflicted.

Curious though how many of the 2MM feds in total are impacted.

This EO excludes any agencies dealing with security and immigration…so excludes border agents, ICE, TSA, probably a decent amount of FBI (they may replace agents but doesn’t sound like they will be reduced), assume Himeland is excluded, assume NSA and CIA excluded (again they may replace CIA agents but not sure there will be less).

Then you have air traffic control which needs to hire people, USPS (I guess they could reduce this) and then VA hospitals and the people administering VA benefits (VA and benefits is 600,000 federal workers alone).

So seems like all of the above are easily 1 MM employees if not more.

They offered a buyout to the entirety of CIA, so don't assume CIA (or really FBI) is excluded. I wouldn't assume DOD is excluded either, since it can't be.

My take is they want to replace current CIA folks with loyalists…not reduce headcount. Thats why they offered the buyouts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This new EO will complete destroy the economy in the DC metro and the US at large. Requiring that agencies get rid of 4 employees for every 1 employee they hire. This rule basically mandates that government agencies reduce their staff by 8% each year. In combination with mass scale RIFs you are easily looking at a 30-50% decline in the federal workforce. In combination with the proposed budget cuts of 250 billion per year, you are looking at job losses in excess of 3 million people for the US. This does not even consider the spillover effects of employed people cutting back on spending due to lower consumer confidence. It will be an unmitigated economic disaster that is completely self inflicted.

Curious though how many of the 2MM feds in total are impacted.

This EO excludes any agencies dealing with security and immigration…so excludes border agents, ICE, TSA, probably a decent amount of FBI (they may replace agents but doesn’t sound like they will be reduced), assume Himeland is excluded, assume NSA and CIA excluded (again they may replace CIA agents but not sure there will be less).

Then you have air traffic control which needs to hire people, USPS (I guess they could reduce this) and then VA hospitals and the people administering VA benefits (VA and benefits is 600,000 federal workers alone).

So seems like all of the above are easily 1 MM employees if not more.

They are pretending to care about the VA and national defense but they fully intend to cut these jobs as well. They are making people that were hired remotely ( in the VA and DoD) and have worked remotely for years RTO (who don’t live within 300 miles of their office) RTO. The administration is using COVID era occupancy data to justify eliminating half of the federal office portfolio while simultaneously requiring everyone to go back 5 days a week. Most agencies don’t have room for their employees to work from the office 5 days a week, if they eliminate 50% of the existing offices. Telework has been a thing for two decades in many gov agencies and they procured office spaces under the assumption that most employees would be in the office around 3 days a week. There is literally no space for 100% RTO. The plan is to eliminate at least 50% of the federal workforce if the GSA is requiring agencies to reduce the office portfolio by 50%. They are probably targeting closer to 75% reductions, they don’t care if the government functions at all and they are actively trying to destroy it.

There are supposedly a ton of government owned buildings that haven’t been occupied for years.

The largest building is 1,000,000!square feet and is old and decrepit and nobody has worked there for 10 years.

I guess my point is a 50% reduction in the office portfolio does not equal a 50% reduction in utilized office space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This new EO will complete destroy the economy in the DC metro and the US at large. Requiring that agencies get rid of 4 employees for every 1 employee they hire. This rule basically mandates that government agencies reduce their staff by 8% each year. In combination with mass scale RIFs you are easily looking at a 30-50% decline in the federal workforce. In combination with the proposed budget cuts of 250 billion per year, you are looking at job losses in excess of 3 million people for the US. This does not even consider the spillover effects of employed people cutting back on spending due to lower consumer confidence. It will be an unmitigated economic disaster that is completely self inflicted.

Curious though how many of the 2MM feds in total are impacted.

This EO excludes any agencies dealing with security and immigration…so excludes border agents, ICE, TSA, probably a decent amount of FBI (they may replace agents but doesn’t sound like they will be reduced), assume Himeland is excluded, assume NSA and CIA excluded (again they may replace CIA agents but not sure there will be less).

Then you have air traffic control which needs to hire people, USPS (I guess they could reduce this) and then VA hospitals and the people administering VA benefits (VA and benefits is 600,000 federal workers alone).

So seems like all of the above are easily 1 MM employees if not more.

They offered a buyout to the entirety of CIA, so don't assume CIA (or really FBI) is excluded. I wouldn't assume DOD is excluded either, since it can't be.

What? Both the FBI and CIA are big targets of Trump. There's thousands of staff at risk there. DOGE is in 19 agencies now.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/us/politics/trump-fbi-employees.html
F.B.I. Gathers List of 3,600 Probationary Employees for the Trump Administration
The administration’s directives have been unclear about why it wants the names of probationary employees, but they appear to pave the way for possible dismissals.
The investigative agency has been in a tense dispute with the administration for weeks over the possibility of mass firings. The acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove III, has already demanded and received information about agents who worked on cases arising from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

[Anonymous]

Elon Musk has said DOGE has a target to cut 3/4 of Federal jobs. Do the math people.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-speaks-jpmorgan-event-attended-by-ceo-dimon-source-says-2025-02-07/

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has been tasked by President Donald Trump to oversee a drastic downsizing and reshaping of the federal government, spoke at a JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), opens new tab conference on Thursday and discussed his broad efforts to reshape the government, according to source familiar with the situation.
The conference in Miami was attended by JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and convened by Mary Erdoes, CEO of the bank’s asset and wealth management business. About 200 of JPMorgan's largest clients attended, according to the source, who declined to be identified discussing a private client event.

Musk took the stage with his mother, Maye Musk, for a conversation moderated by David Rubenstein, co-founder of private equity firm the Carlyle Group (CG.O), opens new tab.
The conversation covered a wide range of topics, including the scope of work of the Department of Government Efficiency, spearheaded by Musk.
DOGE has goals of eliminating entire federal agencies and cutting three quarters of federal government jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This new EO will complete destroy the economy in the DC metro and the US at large. Requiring that agencies get rid of 4 employees for every 1 employee they hire. This rule basically mandates that government agencies reduce their staff by 8% each year. In combination with mass scale RIFs you are easily looking at a 30-50% decline in the federal workforce. In combination with the proposed budget cuts of 250 billion per year, you are looking at job losses in excess of 3 million people for the US. This does not even consider the spillover effects of employed people cutting back on spending due to lower consumer confidence. It will be an unmitigated economic disaster that is completely self inflicted.

Curious though how many of the 2MM feds in total are impacted.

This EO excludes any agencies dealing with security and immigration…so excludes border agents, ICE, TSA, probably a decent amount of FBI (they may replace agents but doesn’t sound like they will be reduced), assume Himeland is excluded, assume NSA and CIA excluded (again they may replace CIA agents but not sure there will be less).

Then you have air traffic control which needs to hire people, USPS (I guess they could reduce this) and then VA hospitals and the people administering VA benefits (VA and benefits is 600,000 federal workers alone).

So seems like all of the above are easily 1 MM employees if not more.

They offered a buyout to the entirety of CIA, so don't assume CIA (or really FBI) is excluded. I wouldn't assume DOD is excluded either, since it can't be.

What? Both the FBI and CIA are big targets of Trump. There's thousands of staff at risk there. DOGE is in 19 agencies now.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/us/politics/trump-fbi-employees.html
F.B.I. Gathers List of 3,600 Probationary Employees for the Trump Administration
The administration’s directives have been unclear about why it wants the names of probationary employees, but they appear to pave the way for possible dismissals.
The investigative agency has been in a tense dispute with the administration for weeks over the possibility of mass firings. The acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove III, has already demanded and received information about agents who worked on cases arising from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

Again…is the intent to reduce the size or replace the people with loyalists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This new EO will complete destroy the economy in the DC metro and the US at large. Requiring that agencies get rid of 4 employees for every 1 employee they hire. This rule basically mandates that government agencies reduce their staff by 8% each year. In combination with mass scale RIFs you are easily looking at a 30-50% decline in the federal workforce. In combination with the proposed budget cuts of 250 billion per year, you are looking at job losses in excess of 3 million people for the US. This does not even consider the spillover effects of employed people cutting back on spending due to lower consumer confidence. It will be an unmitigated economic disaster that is completely self inflicted.

Curious though how many of the 2MM feds in total are impacted.

This EO excludes any agencies dealing with security and immigration…so excludes border agents, ICE, TSA, probably a decent amount of FBI (they may replace agents but doesn’t sound like they will be reduced), assume Himeland is excluded, assume NSA and CIA excluded (again they may replace CIA agents but not sure there will be less).

Then you have air traffic control which needs to hire people, USPS (I guess they could reduce this) and then VA hospitals and the people administering VA benefits (VA and benefits is 600,000 federal workers alone).

So seems like all of the above are easily 1 MM employees if not more.

They offered a buyout to the entirety of CIA, so don't assume CIA (or really FBI) is excluded. I wouldn't assume DOD is excluded either, since it can't be.

What? Both the FBI and CIA are big targets of Trump. There's thousands of staff at risk there. DOGE is in 19 agencies now.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/us/politics/trump-fbi-employees.html
F.B.I. Gathers List of 3,600 Probationary Employees for the Trump Administration
The administration’s directives have been unclear about why it wants the names of probationary employees, but they appear to pave the way for possible dismissals.
The investigative agency has been in a tense dispute with the administration for weeks over the possibility of mass firings. The acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove III, has already demanded and received information about agents who worked on cases arising from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

Again…is the intent to reduce the size or replace the people with loyalists.

Don’t really think replacement is a goal, at least according to President Musky. Elimination is more probable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This new EO will complete destroy the economy in the DC metro and the US at large. Requiring that agencies get rid of 4 employees for every 1 employee they hire. This rule basically mandates that government agencies reduce their staff by 8% each year. In combination with mass scale RIFs you are easily looking at a 30-50% decline in the federal workforce. In combination with the proposed budget cuts of 250 billion per year, you are looking at job losses in excess of 3 million people for the US. This does not even consider the spillover effects of employed people cutting back on spending due to lower consumer confidence. It will be an unmitigated economic disaster that is completely self inflicted.

Curious though how many of the 2MM feds in total are impacted.

This EO excludes any agencies dealing with security and immigration…so excludes border agents, ICE, TSA, probably a decent amount of FBI (they may replace agents but doesn’t sound like they will be reduced), assume Himeland is excluded, assume NSA and CIA excluded (again they may replace CIA agents but not sure there will be less).

Then you have air traffic control which needs to hire people, USPS (I guess they could reduce this) and then VA hospitals and the people administering VA benefits (VA and benefits is 600,000 federal workers alone).

So seems like all of the above are easily 1 MM employees if not more.

They are pretending to care about the VA and national defense but they fully intend to cut these jobs as well. They are making people that were hired remotely ( in the VA and DoD) and have worked remotely for years RTO (who don’t live within 300 miles of their office) RTO. The administration is using COVID era occupancy data to justify eliminating half of the federal office portfolio while simultaneously requiring everyone to go back 5 days a week. Most agencies don’t have room for their employees to work from the office 5 days a week, if they eliminate 50% of the existing offices. Telework has been a thing for two decades in many gov agencies and they procured office spaces under the assumption that most employees would be in the office around 3 days a week. There is literally no space for 100% RTO. The plan is to eliminate at least 50% of the federal workforce if the GSA is requiring agencies to reduce the office portfolio by 50%. They are probably targeting closer to 75% reductions, they don’t care if the government functions at all and they are actively trying to destroy it.

There are supposedly a ton of government owned buildings that haven’t been occupied for years.

The largest building is 1,000,000!square feet and is old and decrepit and nobody has worked there for 10 years.

I guess my point is a 50% reduction in the office portfolio does not equal a 50% reduction in utilized office space.

Do you even work for the government? It doesn’t sound like you know what you are talking about. This RTO order effectively doubles the required office space for federal employees and they are planning on cutting the amount of office space in half. There are at most a few agencies that have enough office space For 100% of their staff to RTO five days a week. Most of them do not have the space to do this and requiring a 50% cut across the board will significantly impair the government ability to function. We don’t even have enough by computer monitors or desks for everyone to use and the administration refused our request to purchase these items. We are literally going to have dozens of employees sitting on the floor in a conference room attempting to work in a few weeks. This is not a thoughtful attempt to improve government efficiency. It is a deliberate plan to prevent the government from functioning at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This new EO will complete destroy the economy in the DC metro and the US at large. Requiring that agencies get rid of 4 employees for every 1 employee they hire. This rule basically mandates that government agencies reduce their staff by 8% each year. In combination with mass scale RIFs you are easily looking at a 30-50% decline in the federal workforce. In combination with the proposed budget cuts of 250 billion per year, you are looking at job losses in excess of 3 million people for the US. This does not even consider the spillover effects of employed people cutting back on spending due to lower consumer confidence. It will be an unmitigated economic disaster that is completely self inflicted.

Curious though how many of the 2MM feds in total are impacted.

This EO excludes any agencies dealing with security and immigration…so excludes border agents, ICE, TSA, probably a decent amount of FBI (they may replace agents but doesn’t sound like they will be reduced), assume Himeland is excluded, assume NSA and CIA excluded (again they may replace CIA agents but not sure there will be less).

Then you have air traffic control which needs to hire people, USPS (I guess they could reduce this) and then VA hospitals and the people administering VA benefits (VA and benefits is 600,000 federal workers alone).

So seems like all of the above are easily 1 MM employees if not more.

They are pretending to care about the VA and national defense but they fully intend to cut these jobs as well. They are making people that were hired remotely ( in the VA and DoD) and have worked remotely for years RTO (who don’t live within 300 miles of their office) RTO. The administration is using COVID era occupancy data to justify eliminating half of the federal office portfolio while simultaneously requiring everyone to go back 5 days a week. Most agencies don’t have room for their employees to work from the office 5 days a week, if they eliminate 50% of the existing offices. Telework has been a thing for two decades in many gov agencies and they procured office spaces under the assumption that most employees would be in the office around 3 days a week. There is literally no space for 100% RTO. The plan is to eliminate at least 50% of the federal workforce if the GSA is requiring agencies to reduce the office portfolio by 50%. They are probably targeting closer to 75% reductions, they don’t care if the government functions at all and they are actively trying to destroy it.

There are supposedly a ton of government owned buildings that haven’t been occupied for years.

The largest building is 1,000,000!square feet and is old and decrepit and nobody has worked there for 10 years.

I guess my point is a 50% reduction in the office portfolio does not equal a 50% reduction in utilized office space.

Do you even work for the government? It doesn’t sound like you know what you are talking about. This RTO order effectively doubles the required office space for federal employees and they are planning on cutting the amount of office space in half. There are at most a few agencies that have enough office space For 100% of their staff to RTO five days a week. Most of them do not have the space to do this and requiring a 50% cut across the board will significantly impair the government ability to function. We don’t even have enough by computer monitors or desks for everyone to use and the administration refused our request to purchase these items. We are literally going to have dozens of employees sitting on the floor in a conference room attempting to work in a few weeks. This is not a thoughtful attempt to improve government efficiency. It is a deliberate plan to prevent the government from functioning at all.

It's actually two different points.

On the one hand, GSA owns some massive buildings that haven't had any occupants for years. I assume this is included in the overall amount of space that the GSA intends to cut. Is that not an accurate statement?

On the other hand, the space that is occupied is insufficient for RTO.

The problem is that 1MM square foot building mentioned can't be used for anything. They can't tell RTO folks to go use that building because it's uninhabitable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This new EO will complete destroy the economy in the DC metro and the US at large. Requiring that agencies get rid of 4 employees for every 1 employee they hire. This rule basically mandates that government agencies reduce their staff by 8% each year. In combination with mass scale RIFs you are easily looking at a 30-50% decline in the federal workforce. In combination with the proposed budget cuts of 250 billion per year, you are looking at job losses in excess of 3 million people for the US. This does not even consider the spillover effects of employed people cutting back on spending due to lower consumer confidence. It will be an unmitigated economic disaster that is completely self inflicted.

Curious though how many of the 2MM feds in total are impacted.

This EO excludes any agencies dealing with security and immigration…so excludes border agents, ICE, TSA, probably a decent amount of FBI (they may replace agents but doesn’t sound like they will be reduced), assume Himeland is excluded, assume NSA and CIA excluded (again they may replace CIA agents but not sure there will be less).

Then you have air traffic control which needs to hire people, USPS (I guess they could reduce this) and then VA hospitals and the people administering VA benefits (VA and benefits is 600,000 federal workers alone).

So seems like all of the above are easily 1 MM employees if not more.

They offered a buyout to the entirety of CIA, so don't assume CIA (or really FBI) is excluded. I wouldn't assume DOD is excluded either, since it can't be.

What? Both the FBI and CIA are big targets of Trump. There's thousands of staff at risk there. DOGE is in 19 agencies now.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/us/politics/trump-fbi-employees.html
F.B.I. Gathers List of 3,600 Probationary Employees for the Trump Administration
The administration’s directives have been unclear about why it wants the names of probationary employees, but they appear to pave the way for possible dismissals.
The investigative agency has been in a tense dispute with the administration for weeks over the possibility of mass firings. The acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove III, has already demanded and received information about agents who worked on cases arising from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

Again…is the intent to reduce the size or replace the people with loyalists.

Don’t really think replacement is a goal, at least according to President Musky. Elimination is more probable.

How do you do mass replacement if not eliminating first? It's a purge. What comes later is unknown, but many assume it will be nothing at all, just empty space. I seriously doubt it. Also, the strategy seems to be get rid of everyone and then ask questions later. Maybe this means interview people later into the same positions or get former employees join as contractors. Anything can happen, this first step doesn't indicate we know what comes next.