Trump administration to lay off all federal employees in DEI offices

The guidance, from Office of Personnel Management acting Director Charles Ezell, follows an executive order from President Trump that directed all agencies to cease any DEI activities immediately. Trump has said such efforts, which President Biden emphasized and helped stand up throughout government, undermined a merit-based civil service and society. 

The new memorandum applies to all offices and sub-units “focusing exclusively on DEIA initiatives and programs.” By the close of business Wednesday, agencies must instruct employees of the office closures, take down any public-facing trace of those offices, withdraw any related guidance or directives they have pending and cancel all DEIA trainings.  

Agencies on Wednesday will also notify relevant staff of their administrative leave status leave. According to a sample letter drafted by OPM, agencies will tell employees their programs "divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars and resulted in shameful discrimination.” They will be encouraged to report any efforts since the election to obscure DEI efforts with a threat that a failure to report such actions within 10 days could result in discipline. 

In preparation for the directive, OPM took steps on this week to reverse President Biden-era rules that limited the use of administrative leave. 

Those facing administrative leave will receive notification that they will still receive their full salary and benefits while in that status, they are not expected to work or come into the office and their email will be suspended.

“We will provide you with updates as soon as they are available,” the letters will state. “We appreciate your patience and cooperation.”

Agencies must update OPM on their efforts to implement the memo by Thursday, including by providing a list of all impacted employees. They will then coordinate with OPM to develop their reduction-in-force plan for all impacted employees, which they must finalize by Jan. 31. 

Federal statute allows for RIFs when they are rooted in specific activities, such as a reorganization, a lack of work or a shortage of funds. In focusing specifically one area the administration has deemed no longer in the government’s interest, it appears to be on firmer legal footing than if it had pursued—or, going forward, opts to pursue—the widespread, indiscriminate layoffs across government Trump transition officials had previously discussed. 

Still, federal employees subjected to layoffs have appeal rights to the Merit Systems Protection Board. Federal employment attorneys have speculated they would have years worth of work in representing civil servants if large-scale RIFs were pursued.  

MSPB is a small agency that typically only processes a few thousand cases per year and an influx such as the one that might be coming could bog down the dismissal process significantly. The board could opt to lump all the relevant cases, should they materialize, together as one class. 

Trump on his first day in office demoted Cathy Harris, a President Biden nominee, from her position as MSPB chair and replaced her with Henry Kerner. The Republican was originally a Trump appointee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, but Biden in 2023 tapped him to serve at MSPB in a designated Republican slot. 

Agencies will face a more difficult path to closing DEI offices that were specifically funded by Congress. A president, said Donald F. Kettl, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland and former dean of its School of Public Policy, cannot unilaterally “undermine agencies ability to carry out functions that Congress mandates.”

Separately, OPM is also asking agencies to deliver lists of every employee hired recently and are therefore still in their probationary period. Those employees can be fired easily without normal civil service hurdles, opening the possibility that the Trump administration is going to dismiss them en masse. 

Amanda Scales, a former employee of Elon Musk's xAI and the new OPM chief of staff, according to a Bloomberg report, was listed as the point of contact on the memo. OPM did not respond to a request for comment.