The Interior Department is taking steps to implement layoffs

After a series of delays, DOI is preparing RIF lists as it looks to implement significant personnel cuts in the coming weeks.

• Interior

The Interior Department is moving toward conducting layoffs across its workforce in the coming weeks, Government Executive has learned, looking to further slash its staffing levels after already pushing a large proportion of its employees out the door. 

Human resources personnel began meeting to finalize reduction in force plans last week, according to documents reviewed by Government Executive and employees familiar with those talks, which continued throughout the weekend and into this week. 

Exactly which employees will be targeted in the cuts remains unclear, though the impacts are expected to be felt across the department’s bureaus. The layoffs are expected in mid-October, according to four people briefed on the plans, although the exact timing is still being worked out and could change or be disrupted by a government shutdown that would begin Oct. 1 absent congressional action. Lists of employees to be laid off are currently being completed, they said, though final decisions are still subject to change. 

Interior was set to lay off thousands of employees in May, but an injunction from a California-based judge at the 11th hour blocked the cuts from taking place. The Supreme Court overturned that injunction in July, though Interior declined to immediately resume its plans. 

The layoffs currently under consideration are expected to be significant, according to three individuals briefed on the plans, potentially doubling the losses Interior has sustained so far and bringing the total reductions at the department to more than one-third of staff that were on board when President Trump took office. The department did not respond to questions seeking clarity on its RIF plans. 

Interior has already lost around 7,500 employees, or nearly 11% of its workforce, through the incentivized retirements and the deferred resignation program alone, which enabled employees to take paid leave for several months before exiting government at the end of September. Those staffers will formally come off the rolls Oct. 1. Those reductions are in addition to major losses resulting from the ongoing hiring freeze, leaving some staff optimistic the layoffs were no longer necessary. 

Many rank-and-file employees said they have received no updates from leadership and their supervisors appear to be in the dark as well. They have been hearing rumors of pending RIFs since April and the uncertainty has created an anxious environment, they said. 

“Staff are worn down by everything the past months have thrown at us, and are habituated to living with fear about layoffs and program restructures,” said one current employee, not authorized to speak on the record, noting that employees are dealing with the busy end of a fiscal year and a looming potential shutdown at the same time.

Employees have raised concerns that ongoing cuts will undermine the department’s capacity to carry out key parts of its mission, ranging from keeping National Parks open to approving oil and gas leases. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum earlier this year ordered parks to remain open without reducing hours—park superintendents need a sign off from agency leadership to close even a trail or visitor center—a requirement that could be complicated by further staff reductions. 

“We do not have enough people to do the work Congress ‘paid for’ and is paying for,” said one U.S. Geological Survey employee. “The DRP royally hurt us.” 

Those working on the RIFs were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements, according to two individuals briefed on the matter. The use of NDAs for non-procurement related matters is unusual in government, although the Veterans Affairs Department deployed a similar tactic earlier this year. 

Interior is working directly with OPM, according to one current employee and documents reviewed by Government Executive, and using a system previously called AutoRIF meant to calculate employees’ “retention standing.” The automation tool aims to help agencies determine which employees are laid off. 

The layoffs are looming as Interior is finalizing a reorganization.

In May, Interior consolidated many of its back end functions from individual bureaus into the central part of the department, although that occurred largely on paper only and without overhauling operations in any practical way.

Political appointees initially associated with the Department of Government Efficiency, Tyler Hassen and Stephanie Holmes, have helped lead reorganization efforts and in recent weeks were reviewing individual position descriptions to determine how to reshape offices and where any redundancies might exist, according to three individuals familiar with the process.

Hassen originally served as acting assistant secretary for policy, management, and budget, and Burgum tapped him to lead the department’s reorganization efforts. He and Holmes were slated to leave Interior in August, but stuck around to help finalize reorganization efforts. That work has included tweaking the functions, titles and pay for job series across the department, as well as reshaping organizational charts. The department is now expected to actually begin migrating and consolidating work. 

The changes will impact employees in IT, communications, finance, human resources and contracting, among others. 

Hassen has clashed with Interior Deputy Secretary Kate MacGregor, according to three people familiar with their dealings, as MacGregor advocated against further RIFs due to the personnel losses the department has already sustained. The dustup has delayed the layoffs, which several officials said were previously slated to take place in late August. 

In his fiscal 2026 budget, Trump proposed cutting the Interior’s budget by 30%. Congressional appropriators have largely ignored that proposal, but the final funding level for the department has not yet been determined.