Federal authorities amassing employee rosters from DEI offices within the White House, as penalties are enforced
The Department of the Interior is swiftly executing the president's executive order regarding layoffs, with federal agencies required to deliver their plans for instituting Reductions in Force (RIFs) by the end of January.
This move affects employees working on diversity and inclusion issues, as the Trump administration instructs agencies to initiate the layoff process. The first to feel the impact are 60 employees at the Veterans Affairs Department, who have been placed on paid administrative leave, a precursor to potential layoffs.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), under the leadership of acting Director Charles Ezell, has encouraged agencies to start sending out layoff notices immediately. Federal employees subjected to layoffs have appeal rights to the Merit Systems Protection Board.
Amanda Scales, a former employee of Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI, is OPM's new chief of staff. She is listed as the point of contact for both the DEIA layoff and probationary period list memos.
Agencies have notified employees on administrative leave that their Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) initiatives have been halted, and any concealment would result in disciplinary action. They are also told that their programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.
It is not yet clear exactly how many employees will be impacted by the RIFs governmentwide. However, the 60 employees at the Veterans Affairs Department represent about 0.01% of its workforce.
Elon Musk visited OPM's headquarters on Friday, but it is unclear if his visit is related to the ongoing layoffs.
Federal agencies are also tasked with delivering lists of employees still in their probationary period, potentially opening the possibility of mass dismissals.
There is no publicly available information indicating that specific German federal agencies have placed their employees working on diversity and inclusion topics on unpaid leave. Reliable data on the number of employees affected by RIFs related to these roles in Germany is also lacking.
Despite these developments, federal employees who find themselves on the receiving end of these layoffs retain their full pay and benefits while they sit on leave. This situation is ongoing, and updates are expected as more information becomes available.
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