Pentagon: 5,400 Civilian Workers to Be Cut Next Week

The Pentagon will be dismissing close to 5,400 probationary civilian workers next week as part of President Donald Trump's goal to "maximize efficiency and productivity" in the federal government.

"We anticipate reducing the Department's civilian workforce by 5-8% to produce efficiencies and refocus the Department on the President's priorities and restoring readiness in the force," Darin Selnick, acting undersecretary for personnel and readiness at the Department of Defense, said in a statement.

"We expect approximately 5,400 probationary workers will be released beginning next week as part of this initial effort, after which we will implement a hiring freeze while we conduct a further analysis of our personnel needs, complying as always with all applicable laws.

On Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth laid out his priorities for his tenure, which will focus on slashing fiscal fraud, waste, and abuse at the Department of Defense and looking for ways to reallocate the military's budget.

"We want you, the American people, the taxpayers, to understand why we're making the decisions that we're making here," Hegseth said, adding that with the Department of Government Efficiency, "we're focusing as much as we can on headquarters, on fat and redundancies and top line stuff that allows us to reinvest elsewhere."

Selnick said in his statement, "As the Secretary made clear, it is simply not in the public interest to retain individuals whose contributions are not mission-critical. Taxpayers deserve to have us take a thorough look at our workforce top-to-bottom to see where we can eliminate redundancies."

If the planned reductions of 5% to 8% eventually go through, the military would be cutting 47,500 to 76,000 of the roughly 950,000 civilian employees, according to CNN.

CNN reported on Wednesday that the planned layoffs could be in violation of Title 10 Section 129a of the U.S. code, a law that mandates the Defense secretary conduct "an appropriate analysis" of how major dismissals could impact the U.S. military's lethality and readiness before implementing.

"The media wants to call these exclusively 'cuts.' It's not a cut," Hegseth said. "It's refocusing and reinvesting funds into building a force to protect you, the American people."

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