The General Services Administration and the Small Business Administration are reopening the “Fork in the Road.” The IRS laid off dozens of IT workers. And GSA has new plans for its offices.
These are three stories that happened Friday afternoon and into early evening.
Here is a round up of what we’ve learned over the weekend.
GSA reopens the ‘Fork in the Road’
In an effort to continue to reduce the size of its workforce, GSA acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian is both extending the applications for early retirements or voluntary separations as well as reopening up the Deferred Resignation Program.
In an email to employees, obtained by Federal News Network, Ehikian wrote employees now have until April 18 to apply for the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment (VSIP) programs. GSA opened the program March 19 with a deadline of April 4.
Employees who accept the VERA/VSIP will separate from the agency no later than May 3.
“Applying for and accepting a VERA and/or VSIP is voluntary. Please refer to the deputy chief human capital officer’s earlier message, or tune in for an upcoming information session to learn more. Employees who elect VERA and VSIP are exempt from return to office,” Ehikian said in the email.
The maximum amount agencies can offer in a VSIP is $25,000. Federal employees under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) are eligible for voluntary early retirement if they’re at least 50 years of age, with at least 20 years of service, or any age with at least 25 years of service.
At the same time, Ehikian said GSA is reopening the Deferred Resignation Program (DRP) for eligible federal employees. He said employees also will have until April 18 to opt into the program. He wrote that “there are NO excluded positions at GSA, and employees are still eligible if they are on the RIF lists.”
“Employees who choose to accept the deferred resignation offer will retain full pay and benefits until Sept. 30 (for retirement purposes, extensions will be considered through 12/31/25). Opting into the DRP is voluntary and further communications will be forthcoming explaining how to opt into the program,” Ehikian wrote.
In the first round of DRP, GSA saw approximately 725 Public Buildings Service employees take the option — a nearly 13% reduction of its headcount.
By extending and reopening these programs, GSA is using these programs ahead of a possible agencywide reduction in force (RIF) as it tries to reduce its total spending across all programs and personnel by 50%.
A district court judge had paused the DRP in February but he later lifted the restraining order after ruling that the federal unions bringing the lawsuits didn’t have standing.
The National Treasury Employees Union, the National Federation of Federal Employees and two others filed a new lawsuit on Feb. 12 seeking to block the DRP and other executive orders aimed at federal employees.
The White House said in February that about 75,000 federal employees took the deferred resignation program the first time around.
SBA to keep its ‘Fork’ open for a week
The SBA is reopening its DRP offering through April 7, according to an email obtained by Federal News Network sent to employees Saturday at 5:45 a.m.
“This program begins effective March 31 and is available to all full-time and part-time SBA employees until April 7,” the agency wrote. “For avoidance of doubt, acceptance of your DRP will be subject to SBA’s approval at its discretion, to ensure continuity of business operations as the agency thoughtfully executes the planned strategic reorganization.”
SBA said employees who take the DRP will be placed on administrative leave by June 1 at the latest, and in most cases by the end of April.
The reopening of the DRP comes as SBA plans to reduce its workforce by 43%, cutting about 2,700 positions from its current workforce of nearly 6,500 employees.
SBA expects to reduce its headcount mostly through voluntary resignations and expiring pandemic-era and other term appointments. The agency said it will only seek a limited number of layoffs through a nonvoluntary Reduction in Force (RIF).
SBA also released an updated frequently asked questions (FAQs) to help employees decide about the DRP program, mostly reminding them of the rules of the program.
IRS makes deeper cuts in IT workforce
The IRS continues to reduce the number of employees in its IT workforce. Late on Friday, Federal News Network has learned that it placed about 50 senior IT leaders on paid administrative leave. Many of these executives were associate or deputy associate chief information officers and were in the Senior Executive Service or General Schedule-15 levels.
The email, which Federal News Network obtained, told employees they are not required to come into the office and their physical and computer access to the office will be suspended, including their email.
“This paid administrative leave status will remain in effect until further notice,” the email said. “You will continue to receive your full salary and benefits during the entirety of this administrative leave period. You are directed not to perform any work-related tasks during this administrative leave period.”
Sources say this cut is another in many as the IRS intends to cut as much as 50% of its IT workforce. It already has reduced its headcount, which started at between 7,000 and 8,000 IT workers, by about 20%. But another round of IT workforce layoffs is possible this week, according to sources, with as many as 150 people facing termination.
Sources also say the IT workers that weren’t affected by this layoff are those that work in user network services, cybersecurity, application development and enterprise operations.
Additionally, sources say Treasury approved VERA authority for the IRS on Friday.
One source, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive issues, said while the approach of sending out the email late on Friday afternoon is wrong for so many reasons, the reduction of these employees isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
The person said many of these managers didn’t have the technical expertise that is required to manage technology programs. It’s clear from the actions the of the U.S. DOGE Service and Trump administration across the government that they are looking to get rid of people or processes that drive up costs or don’t produce outcome based results.
As for the projects these employees ran, the source said they will continue, and if they break, there are enough other people and support to fix them and keep the system or application running.
GSA’s new office locations
In addition to reopening up the DRP, GSA’s Ehikian detailed 19 locations where the agency will consolidate offices into primary locations instead of its current regional model. The new locations are:
- Washington, D.C.
- Boston, Mass.
- New York, N.Y.
- Philadelphia, Pa.
- Atlanta, Ga.
- Norfolk, Va.
- Orlando, Fla.
- Raleigh, N.C.
- Tampa, Fla.
- Chicago, Ill.
- Kansas City, Mo.
- Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas
- Houston, Texas
- San Antonio, Texas
- San Diego, Calif.
- San Francisco, Calif.
- Tacoma, Wash.
- Colorado Springs, Colo.
- Denver/Lakewood, Colo.
“Please note that more than 75% of our existing employees live within a 50 mile radius of these locations, and that was one of the top factors used to assign duty stations for the return to office in Wave 3, expected to begin May 1 subject to space availability. If you were part of Wave 1 or Wave 2, your duty station remains unchanged,” Ehikian wrote in an email obtained by Federal News Network. “For existing GSA employees designated as Wave 3 for return to office, we will first try to match your duty station with a hub affiliated with your geographic location and the department you are assigned. If none of the locations fall within commuting distance of your location, you will be assigned a new duty station and we will address each individual case so you fully understand your options for return to office.”
In 2023, GSA began a reorganization of its Federal Acquisition Service, seeking to break down silos and focus on customers.
The Trump administration charged GSA with accelerating the consolidation of and disposal of federal real property, including potentially moving the agency’s own headquarters into the same building as that of the Interior Department. More broadly, GSA plans to downsize the federal government’s non-defense building space by 50%.
Ehikian said in February that GSA is looking to close and consolidate some of its 11 regional offices across the U.S. and is also looking to close or consolidate many of its more than 700 field offices. He said GSA has commissioned a group to evaluate options to optimize GSA’s footprint — “the result of which will be less waste and better utilization.”
“There are a number of considerations in making these decisions and we will be transparent in our process of evaluating the best options for current employees, access to talent, proximity to buildings and customers as well as the cost to the taxpayer,” Ehikian said.
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