US weather agency plans another round of layoffs

WASHINGTON: The US government agency that provides weather forecasts is planning another round of mass layoffs as part of President Donald Trump’s plan to thin the ranks of the U.S. civil service, a person familiar with the plan said on Sunday.

The planned layoffs of 1,029 workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration follow 1,300 who have already been fired from the agency, which also conducts climate research and other scientific tasks.

The two rounds of layoffs and a buyout program will shrink the agency’s headcount by roughly 20% since the start of the year. The planned cuts were first reported by the New York Times and CBS.

All US government agencies have been ordered to come up with layoff plans by March 13 as part of President Donald Trump’s unprecedented campaign to overhaul the government. Scientists and researchers have been warning that layoffs at NOAA will put American lives at risk and stifle crucial climate research.

Layoff plans at other agencies have raised alarms as well.

Veterans groups, Democrats and some Republicans warn that healthcare and other services for veterans could be compromised by planned reductions at the politically sensitive Department of Veterans Affairs, which is seeking to cut more than 80,000 workers.

The agency will begin those layoffs as early as June, according to a memo reviewed by Reuters.

The VA responded to a request for comment by sending a link to VA Secretary Doug Collins’ recent opinion piece in The Hill in which he defended the cuts as “thorough and thoughtful.”

The cost-cutting campaign by Trump and his adviser Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, in its first phase has already pushed more than 100,000 people out of the 2.3 million-member federal civilian workforce. Agencies including the VA – which provides healthcare and other services to roughly 15.8 million U.S. veterans – are planning a second wave of cuts.

Even by the standard of Musk-driven cuts elsewhere, the scale of the layoffs at the VA is particularly deep and will hit a department that looks after a group that typically garners wide bipartisan support in the U.S., its military veterans.

While there is bipartisan agreement that the federal government needs to be more efficient, Musk’s campaign has drawn criticism. Some 57% of respondents to a Reuters/Ipsos poll last week said they oppose the idea of firing tens of thousands of federal workers.

Federal workers are facing sharp restrictions on spending, including weeks-long bans on purchasing basic office supplies.

At U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, at least some workers were ordered to stop using government “purchase cards” used to buy equipment and pay for other expenses for 30 days, with limits reduced to $1, according to an agency email reviewed by Reuters.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.