The bad news: death and taxes are still inevitable. The good news: an ever-expanding federal government is not.
That statement would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago, when President Joe Biden was hiring tens of thousands of new IRS employees (speaking of taxes) and increasing State Department staff by 22%. Biden came into office complaining that the first Trump administration had “hollowed” the federal workforce and was determined to create a “strong, healthy” federal civil service. He grew it by 6% during his term.
But 14 months into the second Trump administration, Reuters reported that the federal government has shrunk by 12% since September 2024. That follows a January report from the news service stating that the number of government workers is lower than it has been in “at least a decade.”
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The cuts hit across most agencies. Reuters cited “the Treasury Department and Health and Human Services seeing relatively large decreases of 24 percent and 20 percent.” Only the Department of Homeland Security did not see a decrease, though it barely grew at all. The positions emptied were mainly administrative, customer service, and IT. It is also hoped that all DEI positions, which ballooned under Biden, have been eliminated. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor said, “This effort ensures taxpayer dollars support a workforce that delivers efficient, responsive, and high-quality services.”
And the sky has not fallen. There are still nearly 2 million federal employees. Despite there being 12% fewer functionaries at the Department of Agriculture or the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the work still gets done. Regulations are still enforced, and National Parks are still open (apparently, they sorted out the washroom key situation). All the vital functions of the federal government are covered — some not even by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Those cut employees were not all tossed out on the street, either. There were some layoffs, but most of the workers exiting did so voluntarily, taking buyouts or early retirement. Reuters said messages from the Department of Government Efficiency “put employees on edge, including his requirement that they send an email listing five things they accomplished that week.”
Reuters, of course, sees this glass as half empty. In January, it stated that “Budget data points to little, if any, cost savings.” And its March piece grudgingly noted, “The figures show Trump has fulfilled a pledge to slash the size of federal agencies, which he argued were bloated, although it remains to be seen whether the cuts will make them more efficient.”
Cost savings and efficiency are certainly desirable, and hopefully they will come. But even if they do not, shrinking the leviathan is both a worthwhile endeavor and a notable achievement. However, Reuters noted, “The federal government has long been seen as a stable employer, with staff commonly spending decades working inside U.S. agencies.”
Exactly. The president, with the help of DOGE and backed by the will of the voters, has broken through substantial inertia and shaken up an entrenched and lethargic bureaucracy. Those workers were represented by white-collar unions on top of the civil service protections they enjoyed. Consider that much of the federal government was still working remotely until Inauguration Day 2025, years after the COVID-19 pandemic and the rest of the world had returned to the office. In reasserting that these bureaucrats are answerable to the people, the administration is restoring some balance to Washington.
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There are, of course, lawsuits, and some of the laid-off employees may have to be rehired. Hopefully, some of the thousands who left the government got private-sector jobs and are creating value and helping grow the economy. The federal government is too big, consumes too many resources, and does too many things the founders never intended — it probably always will.
But the president has proved we can shrink the beast. All it takes is political will, action, and having a Rubio available to pick up the slack.
Roderick Law is the communications director for the Functional Government Initiative.