Latest news with #DepartmentofGovernmentEfficiencyService
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'The people being punished are the people that need help the most': Washington joins lawsuit against cuts to AmeriCorps
Apr. 30—The Phoenix Conservancy, a Pullman-based nonprofit organization that restores endangered ecosystems on the Palouse, the Great Plains and in Madagascar, stands to lose a $220,000 federal grant after the Trump Administration's Department of Government Efficiency Service slashed $400 million in funding for AmeriCorps. The cuts, Executive Director Chris Duke said Wednesday, have left the small organization scrambling to fill a quarter of its budget. "I just don't understand, just the numbers don't seem like it would make that much of a difference," Duke said. "It's $220,000 for us, which means the world to us, but $220,000 is just a drop in the bucket to some of the things that they're choosing to spend money on now." For the conservancy, the grant was seen as a milestone, as it was the first time since it was founded in 2016 that it had received AmeriCorps funds. The program, Duke said, was rigorous, with "enormous" fiscal oversight to ensure efficiency. In Washington, the group is focused on restoring the Palouse prairie by combating weeds and working to restore a habitat for pollinators. The Phoenix Conservancy also works with local schools to teach students how to plant seeds and grow native plants. Over the past nine years, it has restored more than 700 sites across 117,000 acres of land. "The people being punished are the people that need help the most," Duke said. In late January, nonprofit organizations became anxious, Duke said, as the Trump administration began to gut grants and service programs across the country. "We always kind of suspected that this was going to happen," Duke said. "But it is nonetheless extremely jarring and disappointing, to say the least." Last week, organizations across the country received the news they had long feared: They would lose their grant funding. AmeriCorps has cut approximately 41% of its grant funding and placed 85% of its paid staff on leave. The cuts to AmeriCorps programs sparked a lawsuit Tuesday from 25 states, including Washington, which allege they violate the Administrative Procedures Act and the separation of powers under the U.S. Constitution. "AmeriCorps provides hope and belonging in American communities nationwide. It gives inspiration and purpose to the young people who join its ranks annually," Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement Tuesday. "But the president thinks public programs and public dollars are his to do with what he will, snatching them up through the same scheming that federal courts have already said is likely illegal." AmeriCorps notified Washington on Friday that it would immediately cancel all but one program supported under AmeriCorps. The cuts, Gov. Bob Ferguson said in a statement, would "dismantle" around 800 service sites in the state administered through Serve Washington with approximately 1,300 volunteers, "touching virtually every corner of our state." According to Ferguson, the state stands to lose $21.6 million in funding for programs, which will "impact critical services that benefit all Washingtonians, but especially our most underserved residents." Ferguson said the program aids various efforts on wildfire prevention, staffing food banks, veteran and senior services, college preparation and reading programs. Affected organizations in Spokane County include the United Way, which lost a $50,000 grant, and NorthEast Washington Educational Service District 101, which lost $370,000, and the MLK Day of Service, which lost $200,000. CJ Peterson, VISTA director for the United Way of Spokane County, said the organization received word on Friday that it would lose the grant they've had for 10 years. According to Peterson, the grant allows the agency to be an intermediary with the Volunteers in Service to America program. As of Tuesday, the five VISTA members were placed on administrative hold, with a termination day set for May 20. For the Phoenix Conservancy, the grant required "kind of a leap," Duke said, as it largely reimburses costs already accrued, with the organization only receiving a "very small portion" of the funds. Since receiving the grant, the organization has brought on seven AmeriCorps members and is working to add several others. Under the program, participants receive a small stipend to help pay for living expenses. The rest of the funds are used for equipment. "The big issue, I think for a lot of nonprofits, is the way that it was already structured required nonprofits and anybody with AmeriCorps, to basically take the plunge first and front the costs, under the promise of being reimbursed," Duke said. "So we have a pretty substantial chunk of costs that we've invested. So not only did we lose a fair portion of the funding, we've incurred a bunch of costs that we may or may not be reimbursed for." For the conservancy, the hope is that donors help close the funding gap. "At the end of the day, pulling weeds and planting seeds, they can't really stop us from planting seeds," Duke said. "At least in our case, we can carry on, but the funding hole is a scary problem for a lot of groups."
The Independent
31-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Defense Department to offer new round of voluntary resignations, retirements. There are few details
The Defense Department is going to offer a new round of voluntary resignations and retirements to the civilian workforce, but details are slim. In a brief memo, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon would 'immediately' offer voluntary early retirements and begin another deferred resignation plan. He warned that 'exemptions should be rare,' but provided no specifics on what the offers will look like or say whether they would go out to the entire civilian workforce of more than 900,000. And, while he signed the memo on Friday, it wasn't released to Pentagon leaders until Monday, and there was no information on when or how those offers will be distributed and when the deadlines will be. Hegseth in the memo said he wants to use the voluntary programs in order to 'maximize participation so that we can minimize the number of involuntary actions that may be required.' The cuts are part of the broader effort by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk 's Department of Government Efficiency Service to slash the federal workforce and dismantle U.S. agencies. In mid-March, a senior defense official said roughly 50,000 to 60,000 civilian jobs will be cut in the Defense Department, in an effort to reach the goal of a 5% to 8% cut in that workforce. Fewer than 21,000 workers who took the first voluntary resignation offer are leaving in the coming months, the official said at the time, speaking on condition of anonymity to provide personnel details. In addition, the Pentagon hopes to slash about 6,000 positions each month by simply not replacing workers who routinely leave. Officials have not said how many Defense Department civilians accepted the initial offer — also known as the 'Fork in the Road' — but were turned down. In some cases supervisors deemed the employees essential to national security. According to the new memo, service secretaries and other department leaders will provide a proposed new organizational chart with consolidated management, position titles and numbers "clearly depicted' by April 11.
Chicago Tribune
18-03-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Pentagon is cutting up to 60,000 civilian jobs. About a third of those took voluntary resignations
WASHINGTON — Roughly 50,000 to 60,000 civilian jobs will be cut in the Defense Department, but fewer than 21,000 workers who took a voluntary resignation plan are leaving in the coming months, a senior defense official told reporters Tuesday. To reach the goal of a 5% to 8% cut in a civilian workforce of more than 900,000, the official said, the Pentagon aims to slash about 6,000 positions a month by simply not replacing workers who routinely leave. A key concern is that service members may then be tapped to fill those civilian jobs left empty by the hiring freeze. But the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide personnel details, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to ensure the cuts don't hurt military readiness. The cuts are part of the broader effort by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk 's Department of Government Efficiency Service to slash the federal workforce and dismantle U.S. agencies. Acknowledging that 'some' military veterans will be among the civilians let go, the official would not estimate how many but agreed it could be thousands. The department is using three ways to accomplish the workforce cuts: voluntary resignations, firing probationary workers and cutting jobs as employees routinely leave. The official said the military services and Pentagon officials are going over the personnel on a case-by-case basis to ensure cuts don't affect critical national security jobs. Officials would not say how many Defense Department civilians requested the voluntary resignation plan — also known as the 'Fork in the Road' offer — but said more requested it than the number who eventually were approved. The defense official said the 'vast majority' were allowed but that in some cases, people were denied for national security reasons or to make sure that too many people in one office didn't all leave. He added that Hegseth also has given the secretaries of the military branches and Defense Department personnel leaders the authority to grant exemptions to the hiring freeze. An average of 70,000 civilians are hired each year, which amounts to about 6,000 a month, he said. Because the services have a good deal of latitude in determining which jobs should not be subject to the freeze, it's not clear what portion of those 70,000 would actually be eliminated. Plans to cut probationary workers, which the Pentagon said targeted about 5,400 of the roughly 54,000 in the department, are already on hold due to court challenges. Federal judges ordered the administration to rehire thousands, if not tens of thousands, of probationary workers that had been let go, finding legal problems with the way the mass terminations were carried out. The official added that Hegseth is confident the staffing cuts can be done without negatively affecting military readiness. The Pentagon chief last month in Germany noted that he was planning to welcome DOGE to the Pentagon, adding that 'there are waste, redundancies and headcounts in headquarters that need to be addressed.' Across the government, about 75,000 federal workers are being let go through 'deferred resignation program' buyouts. And at least 24,000 probationary employees were initially let go in the now-paused mass firings across multiple agencies since Trump took office, according to lawsuits challenging the firings. The government has not confirmed that number. The personnel reductions come as top Democrats on the House Judiciary and House Oversight committees have filed a lengthy Freedom of Information Act request questioning whether the Trump administration's DOGE Service is operating 'outside the bounds of federal law,' The Associated Press has learned. In addition, President Donald Trump has ordered a large-scale reduction in force to cut jobs and reduce the overall size of the government. Defense officials could not provide any details on what that would do at the Pentagon or what proposed cuts are being discussed.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
With Elon Musk watching, Trump says he's giving DOGE even more power
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he was signing an executive order to give tech billionaire Elon Musk more power over the federal workforce, adding to Musk's swift and sweeping consolidation of political influence. With Musk standing to his right in the Oval Office, Trump praised the work of his office, known as the Department of Government Efficiency Service (DOGE). And Trump said he wanted Musk to now do more, even as DOGE faces multiple lawsuits from labor unions and Democratic state attorneys general over whether it is acting within the law. The new executive order directs federal agencies to "coordinate and consult" with DOGE to cut jobs and limit hiring, according to a summary provided by the White House. Each agency will be ordered to "undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force" and limit hiring to only "essential positions," the summary says. Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the wealthiest person in the world, is wielding federal authority without giving up his private-sector jobs while also serving as a "special government employee." It is a temporary position that bypasses some of the disclosure obligations required of full-time government employees. He wore an all-black "Make America Great Again" hat and had one of his 11 children underfoot for the briefing. Trump and Musk took questions from reporters in a freewheeling exchange for more than half an hour, but the two spoke mostly in generalities and did not give details about the alleged fraud they said DOGE had found. For weeks, Musk has railed against what he says is waste, fraud or abuse that DOGE has identified, although many of the examples he has posted about on social media lack specifics. On Monday, the DOGE account on X said the administration had terminated 89 contracts worth $881 million, but it did not say what they were or why they counted as waste. In other instances, independent fact-checkers have cast doubt on Musk's examples of alleged waste. His claim that the United States spent $50 million on condoms for the Gaza Strip was widely criticized for lacking evidence. Asked by a reporter about the condom fact-checks, Musk acknowledged that some of what he has said about alleged waste in the government has turned out to be false. 'Nobody's going to bat a thousand,' Musk said. (Earlier in the day, Musk had been posting phallic jokes on X.) Musk also said he had worked with Secretary of State Marco Rubio to 'turn on funding' for Ebola and HIV prevention, making them exceptions to his attempt at an overall spending freeze. He said pausing that funding had been a 'mistake.' 'We will make mistakes, but we also fix the mistakes very quickly,' he said. The two said little to calm concerns that they were violating the Constitution, including by trying to shutter federal agencies without the approval of Congress and refusing to spend money that Congress had appropriated. Among DOGE's targets for elimination are the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Education Department. In response to a reporter's question, Musk said it was not a conflict of interest for him to intervene in the operations of the Defense Department, for which SpaceX is a major contractor. He said he delegates the relevant work at SpaceX. 'First of all, I'm not the one filing the contract. It's people at SpaceX,' he said. And he added: 'If you see any contract where the where it was awarded to SpaceX and it wasn't by far the best value for money for the taxpayer, let me know, because every one of them was.' SpaceX had $3.8 billion in federal contracts last year, according to government data. Trump brushed aside a reporter's question about whether he would eventually need congressional approval to cut spending. "I really don't know," he said. "If I need a vote of Congress to find fraud and abuse, it's fine with me. I think we'll get the vote." Trump also attacked a federal judge in New York who granted a temporary restraining order Saturday related to DOGE's activity in the Treasury Department. He called the judge an "activist." But he said in response to a later question that he would abide by any adverse court rulings. "I always abide by the courts — always abide by them — and will appeal," he said. In the three weeks since Trump took office, plaintiffs have filed 52 lawsuits over his executive orders and other administrative actions, including DOGE's activity, according to a database maintained by Just Security, a legal publication based at New York University. The image of Trump and Musk taking questions side-by-side appeared to put to rest any doubts over whether Musk had Trump's support for his expansive overhaul proposals. And the latest executive order appeared to be aimed at expanding the scope of Musk's influence. Trump did not sign the DOGE-related executive order in the presence of reporters, but the White House said later that he had signed it. There are about 2.4 million federal employees, excluding postal workers, according to the Pew Research Center. The number has grown by a little over 1% per year since 2000, but as a share of all civilian employment it has changed little, Pew said in a report last month. Even if DOGE succeeds at cutting the federal workforce by a substantial number, their compensation makes up a small percentage of the overall budget — about 6.6%, according to the Brookings Institution. The vast majority of federal spending goes toward Social Security; health care for the elderly, disabled and poor; the military; and interest on the national debt, the Congressional Budget Office says. Musk and Trump mentioned the words 'waste,' 'fraud' or 'abuse' dozens of times in the 30-plus minutes they spoke with reporters, but details were few and far between. Trump said an unspecified man had been given a federal contract for three months but was paid for 20 years, a story for which he provided no evidence. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for more information. Several long-standing government offices were already devoted to finding waste, fraud and abuse before DOGE was created. They include the Government Accountability Office and the inspectors general for individual departments. Musk said that DOGE has been looking into the net worth of some federal employees and that he considered a high net worth a sign of potential fraud for a government worker. "There are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have ostensibly a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars but somehow managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth," he said. "We're just curious as to where it came from." Musk did not say how DOGE had acquired data about federal employees' net worth, and White House spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for more information about his comments. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk Appears With Trump In Oval Office To Defend DOGE
Billionaire Elon Musk and President Donald Trump presented a united front in the Oval Office on Tuesday — before Trump granted Musk even more power. Trump signed an executive order that requires federal agencies to report to the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency Service as they cut down the federal workforce. All hires will need to be made with the approval of a 'DOGE Team Lead' at each agency, and no more than one person will be hired for every four that depart, according to the order. 'By eliminating waste, bloat, and insularity, my Administration will empower American families, workers, taxpayers, and our system of Government itself,' Trump wrote in the order. But DOGE and Musk's actions to curtail government spending, which Congress controls, have already led to several lawsuits and court orders, the end result of which remains unclear. 'The people voted for major government reform and that's what the people are going to get,' Musk, who was not elected to office by Americans, said Tuesday, according to a White House pool report. 'That's what democracy is all about.' Musk was dressed in dark colors with a 'Make America Great Again' hat on and accompanied by one of his 11 children, X Æ A-12. At one point, X appeared to pick his nose and placed a booger on the Resolute Desk. Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is the richest man in the world with a current net worth of $378.8 billion, according to Forbes. Trump Takes 1 More Step Towards A Constitutional Crisis Trump DOJ Accused of Deleting Evidence In Jan. 6 Court Cases Appeals Court Won't Halt Judge's Order Requiring Trump Administration To Unfreeze All Federal Cash Trump Signs Executive Order To Continue Downsizing Federal Workforce
