The EPA, facing a 31-percent cut in funding, has set a goal of downsizing its workforce by Sept. 30, according to a memo given to employees. Government Executive said the agency “will continue a freeze on external hiring and begin offering early retirement and buyouts,” although details were not immediately clear.
Agencies can offer employees up to $25,000 in buyout payment and allow otherwise ineligible workers to receive retirement benefits as lures for voluntary departures, according to the White House budget office. The “skinny” budget released last month, covering discretionary spending in fiscal 2018, calls for a 25-percent reduction in EPA staffing, or 3,200 people.
The administration has directed all federal departments and agencies to draw up plans for a smaller workforce, partly to meet budget goals and partly to satisfy plans for an overall restructuring of the federal government and its duties. At USDA, the budget calls for smaller staffing for “Service Center Agencies,” elimination of water and sewer programs, less money for USDA statistical agencies and reliance on “private-sector conservation planning.”