The US Department of Veterans Affairs plans to lay off 80,000 employees from the agency that helps distribute benefits to American military veterans, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
The department's chief of staff, Christopher Sirak, sent an order to senior agency officials yesterday, telling them that the goal is to return the number of employees to 2019, when the agency had fewer than 400,000 people. This means that about 82,000 employees must be laid off.
The order states that agency officials must work with the Department of Government Efficiency, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, to carry out the cuts.
Musk and his team have been tasked by US President Donald Trump to reduce the size and costs of the federal administration. So far, about 25,000 US government employees have been fired, and another 75,000 out of a total of 2.3 million federal employees have left their jobs.
About a quarter of the veterans' agency's employees are themselves military veterans, Reuters notes.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has withdrawn a list of federal properties for possible sale, including some iconic buildings owned by the US government, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
The change of course comes a day after the US General Services Administration (GSA) published a list of 443 properties that it said it could sell, for to save on maintenance costs. The “non-core property list” is now empty.
The administration did not explain why it took down the list, but said in a statement that it had received “tremendous interest” and planned to release a new list in the near future.
The list included the headquarters of more than a dozen federal agencies, including the AOU’s own building. Skyscrapers in Chicago, Atlanta and Cleveland and large tax processing centers also made the list.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser called the initial list “outrageous” and said any sale would have to be done in an organized manner.
The potential sale appears to be part of Trump’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal government, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk. The drive to cut costs has already led to about 100,000 employees being furloughed or laid off.
Musk's Ministry of Government Efficiency claims to have saved $105 billion so far, in part by canceling leases on government properties.