Policy Backgrounders

Recent Actions Remaking the Federal Workforce

February 07, 2025

The new Administration has taken steps intended to reduce the size and change the composition of large segments of the Federal workforce, which includes about 4.5 million people. Several of the measures face legal challenges which will determine their ultimate impact and potentially reshape the scope of the President’s power over career employees in the workforce.

• The Administration’s actions targeting the Federal workforce reflect several of its priorities, including spending reduction, removing potential barriers to its policy agenda, and dismantling DEI initiatives.
• It is unclear how many workers will be affected. Some analysts estimate that at least 50,000 to as many as hundreds of thousands of individuals currently in career positions may be reclassified as at-will employees.
• A proposal for a large-scale buyout (“Fork in the Road”) issued from the Office of Personnel Management, working with officials associated with the US DOGE Service (also known as the “Department of Government Efficiency”), estimated that up to 200,000 people may choose to resign. Thus far, it has resulted in relatively few acceptances and faces a legal challenge.
• Certain actions targeting specific agencies, including the FBI, have raised concerns that the Administration is retaliating against its perceived opponents.