The Treasury Department has been preparing to place more than 75 percent of its workforce on furlough. This shift fits into a broader agenda of Elon Musk’s to downsize the federal government. With more than 100,000 employees, the department is finalizing plans to comply with President Donald Trump's executive order backing the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) initiatives. These steps are all in the name of decreasing the federal workforce. They’ve been swallowed up by the courts and serious public pushback.
Trevor Norris, the Deputy Assistant Secretary in Human Resources at the Treasury Department, confirmed the furloughs. They are the result of DOGE’s continued push to make government work better and cost less. The Department of Government Efficiency has been actively working towards cutting federal employee numbers as part of broader restructuring efforts. Their progress has been ground to a halt, for now, by blocking orders from three rogue judges.
In response, Maryland has sued to stop the layoffs, recently filing a complaint to obtain a temporary stay on the furloughs. This legal challenge is representative of the overall contentious nature of DOGE’s efforts to bring sweeping changes across multiple government departments.
A spokesperson for the Treasury Department addressed the situation, stating:
"The Treasury Department is considering a number of measures to increase efficiency, including a rollback of wasteful Biden-era hiring surges, and consolidation of critical support functions to improve both efficiency and quality of service."
The spokesperson pointed out that planning and conversations are still well underway. They emphasized that final decisions have not yet been reached on the degree or timing of the furloughs.
"No final decisions have yet been made, and any current reporting to the contrary is false."