in effect
This is Executive Order 14210, signed February 11, 2025, directing federal agencies to shrink and reorganize their civilian workforce as part of the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) initiative. It orders agencies to cut staff through attrition and layoffs, tighten hiring, and report on which parts of each agency could be eliminated or merged.
The Office of Management and Budget must produce a plan under which agencies may hire only one new employee for every four who leave (the IRS keeps its existing separate hiring freeze). New career hires must be cleared in consultation with each agency’s “DOGE Team Lead,” who files a monthly hiring report and can block filling a vacancy unless the Agency Head overrides it. Agencies must prepare “large-scale reductions in force” (layoffs), prioritizing offices whose work isn’t required by law—including diversity, equity, and inclusion programs—and must cut temporary employees and reemployed annuitants in those areas. Two 30-day deadlines are set: OPM must start a rulemaking adding new “suitability” grounds to disqualify people from federal service (such as not filing tax returns, failing citizenship requirements, refusing nondisclosure certifications, or stealing/losing government property), and Agency Heads must report which statutes require their agency to exist and whether parts should be eliminated or consolidated. Within 240 days the U.S. DOGE Service Administrator must report to the President on the order’s results.
Federal executive-branch civilian employees—especially temporary workers, reemployed annuitants, and staff in offices not required by statute or in DEI programs—face reduced hiring and possible layoffs. The order exempts military personnel and functions tied to public safety, immigration enforcement, and law enforcement, and lets Agency Heads or the OPM Director grant further exemptions for national security, homeland security, or public safety. It applies to executive agencies but not to the Executive Office of the President, and states it creates no legally enforceable rights.