Trump team orders huge government layoffs: how science could fare Nature talks with scientists inside US agencies about what the latest directive could mean for their staff members and budgets. By Dan Garisto, Max Kozlov & Jeff Tollefson
The administration of US President Donald Trump has already laid off thousands of government workers.Credit: Tierney L. Cross/Getty
Agencies across the US government have been ordered to initiate another punishing round of layoffs at the same time Congress is moving forward with a plan to slash their budgets — a potential blow to science.
On Wednesday, Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), sent a memo directing agency heads to submit two-step plans for significant ‘reductions in force’ (RIFs) by 13 March and 14 April.
The memo does not provide absolute numbers, but calls for “maximum elimination of functions that are not statutorily mandated”.The administration of US President Donald Trump “has targeted every single federal worker and does not seem to care how much turmoil they cause for either the employees or the American public,” the American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing about 800,000 workers, said in a 26 February statement. “The chaos is the point.”
