Treasury Department is set to lay off a ‘substantial’ number of employees, official says

The Treasury Department is planning to furlough a “substantial” level of its workforce in conjunction with Elon Musk’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal government, according to a court document.

As part of a complaint in a related case, Trevor Norris, the department’s deputy assistant secretary in human resources, indicated that the layoffs will be coming as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s ongoing moves to cut the federal employee rolls.

In a sworn statement, Norris said Treasury is wrapping up plans to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order backing DOGE’s activity. Treasury currently has more than 100,000 employees.

“These plans will be tailored for each bureau, and in many cases will require separations of substantial numbers of employees through reductions in force (RIFs),” Norris said in an affidavit.

The case involves a complaint by the state of Maryland to get a stay on the layoffs. In recent days, three judges have issued restraining orders putting temporary halts on DOGE’s efforts to hit several departments.

“The Treasury Department is considering a number of measures to increase efficiency, including a rollback of wasteful Biden-era hiring surges, and consolidation of critical support functions to improve both efficiency and quality of service,” a Treasury spokesperson said. “No final decisions have yet been made, and any current reporting to the contrary is false.”

Bloomberg News first reported the planned layoffs.

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