Executive Order of February 11, 2025: Implementing The President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Workforce Optimization Initiative.

On February 11, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order titled Implementing the President's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Workforce Optimization Initiative. This order aims to significantly reduce the size of the federal workforce and implement new hiring practices. Read the executive order:

• Executive Order on whitehouse.gov
• White House Fact Sheet on the Executive Order

NAFSA Summary

Workforce Reductions and Hiring Restrictions

RIFs. The executive order directs federal agencies to "initiate large-scale reductions in force (RIFs)," prioritizing the elimination of temporary employees, reemployed annuitants, and offices not mandated by statute. Specific targets for cuts include diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, programs suspended or closed by the Administration, and employees in non-statutory functions who are not designated as essential during government shutdowns.

1:4 hiring ratio. Agencies must also implement a hiring ratio of one new employee for every four departures, and new career appointment hiring decisions must be made in consultation with the agency's DOGE Team Lead. The DOGE Team Lead can also block the filling of vacancies, unless the Agency Head determines otherwise.

Exemptions and Exceptions

The order exempts functions related to public safety, immigration enforcement, and law enforcement, and agency heads may also exempt positions deemed necessary for national security, homeland security, or public safety.

What about adjudication functions like USCIS, OFLC, etc.? One looming question is how might the executive order impact agency components like USCIS and the Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC), as both have primarily immigration benefit adjudication functions rather than enforcement. Agencies and agency components that don't ultimately qualify for an exemption under the executive order could see staffing shortages, which could lead to slower case processing, increased backlogs, and reduced customer service capacity, especially in combination with the "enhanced vetting and screening" called for by Executive Order 14161, Protecting The United States From Foreign Terrorists And Other National Security And Public Safety Threats.

Additional Considerations

The Office of Personnel Management will initiate rulemaking to revise "suitability criteria" for federal employment. Agencies must also submit reports identifying statutorily required entities and discuss potential elimination or consolidation of agencies or subcomponents.