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AN UPDATE ON FEDERAL WORKERS
By Lisa Desjardins, @LisaDNews
Correspondent
 
Hello from Nebraska, where the cranes have converged, a blizzard is on the way and producer Kyle Midura and I are on the road, covering what people here think about the actions President Donald Trump has taken — and the effects seen so far.
 
We’ll have more about this trip in next week’s edition. (Meanwhile here is the playlist accompanying us on Interstate 80 as I write on the laptop.)
 
For this week, let’s talk about where things stand for federal workers and the shape of the U.S. government.
 
Probationary workers restored (for now)
 
Some 25,000 fired probationary workers were reinstated, following two federal judges’ rulings last week. Both decisions are temporary.
 
The wider of the two rulings, from District Judge James Bednar, affects 18 federal agencies. Bednar ordered them to reinstate workers by Monday, for two weeks.
 
Many of those workers, including some I’m talking with, were immediately placed on administrative leave. Judge William Alsup, whose ruling affects six federal agencies, said that is in violation of his order and has asked for a response from the federal government.
 
In other words: Thousands of workers are reinstated for at least two weeks, being paid but not allowed to work while on administrative leave.  
 
As agencies move to make larger reductions in force, many of these workers are bracing themselves to be terminated a different way, down to line.
 
Reductions in force

First, a reminder: These refer to significant staff reductions in federal staffing and there is a statutory process for how these must be carried out. That includes 60-day notice to workers. There are also collective bargaining agreements that apply, which the Office of Personnel Management has told agencies to ignore. (There is a 119-page document outlining this process.)
 
This process is just starting. Agencies had a deadline last week to submit their reductions-in-force proposals to the White House. Here are some beginning figures:

• Department of Education: Some 1,300 workers have been RIF’d as part of shrinking agency staff by nearly 50 percent
• Veterans Affairs: Secretary Doug Collins told PBS News Hour in early March that the agency plans to reduce its staff some 15 percent. That is equal to more than 60,000 workers.
• Internal Revenue Service: The federal tax collector aims to cut as many as 6,800 workers through a RIF. That is in addition to the thousands of probationary cuts now on hold. 

The Associated Press put together a look at RIFs underway.

• An estimated 25,000 probationary workers are in a legal limbo. The Federal News Network has a great look at the numbers by agency
• In total, an estimated 62,000 federal jobs were cut last month, per the jobs firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas
• A few agencies have been essentially shuttered, including USAID and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees U.S.-funded broadcasters such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia.