AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas is home to nearly 130,000 federal employees but many of those could lose their jobs under a new directive issued by President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
The executive order, titled “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative”, calls for federal agencies to submit a list of essential employees to a team of United States Digital Service (USDS) employees. In a separate order, Trump renamed the service to the Department of Government Efficiency, which was originally a non-governmental entity to be led by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
More than three million people work for the federal workforce, making up 1.87% of the total U.S. workforce, according to Pew Research Center. As for which employees may lose their jobs because of the order, it will largely be the decision of Trump-appointed agency heads.
“Agency Heads shall promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force (RIFs)…and to separate from Federal service temporary employees and reemployed annuitants working in areas that will likely be subject to the RIFs,” the order reads.
However, it’s unclear if employees funded by non-appropriations sources would retain their jobs under this order.
“All offices that perform functions not mandated by statute or other law shall be prioritized in the RIFs, including all agency diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; all agency initiatives, components, or operations that my Administration suspends or closes; and all components and employees…not typically designated as essential during a lapse in appropriations as provided in the Agency Contingency Plans on the Office of Management and Budget website.”
Those plans, used during prior government shutdowns, provide some insight; for example, the Defense Department’s 2019 Lapse Plan said that only 24.7% of its workers were necessary to “protect life and property.” For the Agriculture Department in 2024, only 26% of its employees were necessary for that purpose and for statutory responsibilities.
Those percentages fall roughly in line with a 2024 promise by Musk and Ramaswamy, made during Trump’s presidential campaign, to slash the federal workforce by 75%. The federal workforce also lost nearly 65,000 federal employees who took a buyout offer in January, according to the White House.
The RIF order and the buyout offers do not apply to agencies involved with law enforcement, immigration, public safety, military personnel or the essential employees.
Factoring out exempt agencies and the workers who already took buyouts, that cut could leave the federal government with between 500,000 and a million employees.
Texas, the state with the fourth most federal employees, could likely see its unemployment rate rise to 5%. The state’s current unemployment rate is 4.2% — mostly in-line with the national unemployment rate of 4%.
Agency leaders have until March 13 to decide how many employees to keep.
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