A pair of judges have ordered the U.S. government to rehire thousands of laid off workers, frustrating U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to quickly and drastically shrink the federal workforce.
The Trump administration has prioritized slashing the federal workforce, first offering employees financial incentives to join a deferred resignation plan and then implementing mass layoffs of probationary employees. More than 20,000 employees have been laid off to date.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) first gained access to NOAA in early February, and at the end of the month, the agency laid off hundreds of employees. The Associated Press and others reported earlier in March that the administration was preparing to lay off another 1,000 employees – roughly 10 percent of its workforce.
However, on 13 March, two federal judges ordered the government to hire back laid off employees before NOAA could implement any more layoffs.
The rulings come in response to two lawsuits – one brought by federal employee unions and one brought by attorneys general from Democrat-controlled states. Although the Department of Justice argued that the firings – which were targeted at probationary workers who have been on the job less than two years and have fewer protections – were over ...
