In August, months after Elon Musk left the federal government, the director of the Office of Personnel Management offered the first hard estimate of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency's impact on the civil service. The government would likely end 2025 with about 300,000 fewer employees than it had at the start of the year, he told reporters. Most resignations were attributable to the incentives DOGE had offered the federal workforce to resign their positions. The total figure amounted to one in eight workers.
President Donald Trump won a second term with a promise to support the working-class voters who backed him. But many workers now feel less secure and find their jobs harder to do - squeezed by immigration crackdowns, federal layoffs and funding cuts, and weakened labor protections. The uncertainty fueled by these policies, combined with Trump's trade wars, is beginning to surface in economic data, economists say.
"We are actively looking and recruiting to fill those positions that are integral to the efforts and the key frontlines," Rollins told members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.
The GOP's proposals aim to reduce federal spending by impacting retirement benefits for federal employees, while simultaneously seeking to extend tax cuts for the wealthy.