February 17, 2025 | 08:39 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Donald Trump and his advisor, Elon Musk, led a program to streamline the United States bureaucracy, resulting in the mass layoff of over 9,500 federal employees last Friday, February 14, 2025. This policy affected various sectors, including federal land administration, healthcare services for veterans, and financial and environmental oversight agencies.
The mass layoff includes employees from the Departments of Interior, Energy, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services. This move primarily targets probationary employees still within their first year of work, as they have weaker job protections compared to permanent employees.
This drastic step is part of a broader strategy implemented by Trump and Musk to cut back the size of the government bureaucracy, which they deemed excessively large and inefficient.
As reported by Reuters, this wave of layoffs occurred after the federal government's human resources division instructed various agencies to terminate a majority of the countries’ approximately 280,000 probationary workers.
This act was seen as a sharp escalation in the Trump administration's efforts to overhaul and downsize the federal workforce. Furthermore, several government agencies nearly ceased operations due to these cuts, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an independent oversight body previously tasked with safeguarding consumers from unfair financial practices.
Apart from layoffs, around 75,000 federal employees have taken buyout that got them to leave voluntarily, with the amount equivalent to roughly 3 percent of the 2.3 million of civilian workforce.
The government claims that this move will save the country's budget in the long run.Trump argues that the federal government is too bloated, and a significant amount of the budget is wasted due to inefficiency and fraud. With the government debt reaching approximately US$36 trillion and a budget deficit of US$1.8 trillion last year, there is bipartisan consensus on the need for reform.
However, the Democratic Party in Congress argued that Trump has exceeded his authority in managing the federal spending, while the majority of the Republican Party in Congress tends to support these measures.On the other hand, the speed and scope of these policies have caused tensions within the Trump administration itself.
Some White House staff, including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, are reportedly frustrated with the lack of coordination in implementing these policies. Sources within the administration stated that some decisions were made without adequate consultation with other senior officials.
According to the Times of India, these layoffs also significantly impact the healthcare sector. Nearly half of the probationary workers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and some at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) lost their jobs.
In the environmental sector, the US Forest Service (USFS) terminated the employment of about 3,400 new employees, while the National Park Service (NPS) ended contracts for around 1,000 people. These workforce reductions could potentially hinder various critical environmental programs, including forest fire prevention and national ecosystem management.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the US tax collection agency, is reportedly set to carry out a mass layoff next week, which could impact the preparation for the tax season leading up to the April 15 deadline.
These budget cuts also sparked concerns about other public services, such as wildfire firefighting. After a major fire struck Los Angeles last month, federal programs had to halt the recruitment of seasonal firefighters and postpone efforts to clear dead wood from forests.The impact of this policy continues to be debated at the national level.
Trump and Musk's supporters view this step as part of the necessary reform to enhance efficiency and reduce wastage. Conversely, critics are concerned that this policy may hinder essential public services and increase the workload for remaining employees.
Some analysts also warn that such a substantial workforce reduction could negatively impact economic stability and the overall well-being of the society at large.
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