Washington — More than 24,000 workers at 18 federal agencies who were fired as part of President Trump’s efforts to shrink the size of the government are now in the process of being rehired following a federal judge’s order last week.
The Trump administration provided a detailed accounting of the number of probationary employees, generally considered those who were in their jobs for less than one year, who were targeted in the president’s drastic plans to scale back the federal workforce in court filings Monday. The information was submitted as part of the administration’s compliance with a temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Judge James Bredar last week.
Justice Department lawyers provided declarations from human resources officials at 18 different agencies who were covered by Bredar’s order, which detailed the number of probationary workers who were fired last month and then had to be reinstated to their roles.
Bredar, who sits on the federal district court in Maryland, temporarily blocked the mass firings of probationary workers and ordered them to be reinstated. He is the second judge to order the Trump administration to rehire fired federal workers.
The Justice Department has appealed both decisions. But on Monday, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Appeals for the 9th Circuit declined to put one of the orders, from a federal district judge in California, on hold while proceedings move forward.
In their declarations, the human resources officials across the federal government said they were working to comply with Bredar’s order. But they all warned that reinstating removed employees would cause “significant confusion” and turmoil for those workers. The officers also noted that an appeals court could reverse the district court’s order, subjecting affected employees to multiple changes in their employment status in just a few weeks.
Most of the employees who were rehired were placed on administrative leave with full pay and benefits, the human resources officials said.
Here is the breakdown of how many employees were fired and then reinstated at 18 agencies:
- Environmental Protection Agency: 419 probationary workers were terminated and all received notices informing them that the removals were rescinded. The EPA’s director of the Office of Human Capital Operations said “most” returned on paid administrative leave.
- Department of Energy: 555 employees were fired, and termination notices were canceled for 319 of the 555 affected employees by 1 p.m. on March 17. They were placed on retroactive administrative leave. The process was completed for the rest of the fired employees by 1:35 p.m. on March 17.
- Department of Commerce: 791 were terminated out of 9,000 total probationary and trial-period employees. Of those, 27 employees had been reinstated for operational reasons and 764 received notification of their reinstatement.
- Department of Health and Human Services: 3,248 probationary workers were fired, and all were sent notifications of reinstatement by email or letter.
- Department of Homeland Security: 313 probationary employees were terminated and the agency is taking steps to place all of them on administrative leave, it said in a declaration. One worker declined reinstatement, one is employed in another component of the department and a third was returning to service to participate in the deferred resignation program, Homeland Security’s chief human capital officer wrote.
- Department of Transportation: 775 were probationary employees removed from their roles. All have been told that their terminations are rescinded, according to its declaration.
- Department of Education: 65 probationary workers were terminated, and all have been reinstated and placed on paid administrative leave, the department’s chief human capital officer said.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development: 312 probationary employees were fired. Thirteen have since been fully reinstated and reinstatement actions have been initiated for the remaining 299 workers, according to HUD’s declaration.
- Interior Department: 1,712 employees were terminated, and the department’s deputy assistant secretary for human capital, learning and safety said 90% of 1,710 workers who were fired have since been rehired. The department said it is not rehiring two workers who qualify for exclusions under the judge’s temporary restraining order.
- Department of Labor: 170 probationary employees were removed, and all termination notices were rescinded, the Labor Department said.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 117 workers were terminated, and all have been reinstated and placed on administrative leave, according to the bureau’s acting chief human capital officer.
- Small Business Administration: 304 employees were fired. Six of those workers were rehired on Feb. 18, according to the agency’s declaration. Five probationary workers remain employed with the Small Business Administration, and one voluntarily resigned. Notices were sent to 298 workers informing them that they were reinstated.
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: 156 probationary workers were fired, and all have been reinstated, the FDIC’s deputy to the acting chairman and chief operating officer said in a declaration.
- U.S. Agency for International Development: 270 probationary employees were fired. USAID sent emails to all affected workers telling them that they are reinstated and will be on administrative leave, according to the agency’s senior deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Human Capital and Talent Management.
- General Services Administration: 366 probationary employees were fired, but they have since been rehired, the agency said in a declaration. But two declined to take their jobs back.
- Treasury Department: 7,613 workers were terminated. The department’s deputy assistant secretary for human resources provided a breakdown of reinstatements by each of its components:
- The Bureau of Engraving and Printing sent email notices of rehiring to 48 of its impacted workers.
- At the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, all 169 affected workers received email notices of reinstatement.
- The U.S. Mint informed its eight probationary employees of reinstatement.
- The IRS sent email notices to 6,387 of its 7,315 affected workers by Monday afternoon.
- At the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, it had not yet processed the firings of 73 probationary workers, so they were placed on administrative leave status on Sunday, according to the department’s declaration.
- Department of Agriculture: 5,714 probationary employees were terminated and all were reinstated by March 12 because of proceedings before the Merit Systems Protection Board, the acting principal deputy assistant secretary for administration said.
- Department of Veterans Affairs: 1,683 probationary workers were fired and all were reinstated, according to its declaration.
