Today, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a memo (M-17-22) to agency heads directing federal agencies to make deep personnel cuts over the next year. This memo replaces the Presidential Memo freezing hiring (M-17-17), which was signed by the President on January 25th, which instituted a hiring freeze across all federal agencies.
The OMB memo tells agencies to “begin taking immediate actions to achieve near-term workforce reductions.” The OMB memo instructs agencies to develop an initial high-level plan by June 30 to “maximize employee performance”, meaning take steps to reward employees deemed effective while working to improve or dismiss weak performers. The memo also calls on agencies to develop a plan to shrink personnel in an effort to accommodate long term budget reductions outlined in the skinny budget. The plan is due by September as part of the FY2019 internal budget submission. Specific cuts will be left up to agencies. It should be noted that many positions across the federal government, including many high-level agency positions, are open and unfilled. Many cuts could be realized by simply not filling those jobs.
Additionally, the memo says that agencies should strive to eliminate or merge programs that are duplicative as well as eliminate non-essential to the agency’s mission or are already carried out in some form by state and local government.
Finally, the memo does attempt to reduce federal reporting requirements requiring the OMB with other agencies will identify initial reporting activities that can be immediately stopped or modified to reduce reporting and compliance burden within 60 days.