How mass federal firings impact public safety, national security

What you probably already know: The Trump administration is making deep cuts to the civilian federal workforce. More than 200,000 employees — primarily those hired within the last two years — could be out of jobs when the dust settles in this initial round. An additional 75,000 workers have accepted deferred buyouts. Mass layoffs have occurred across multiple agencies, including the Departments of Education, Homeland Security, Energy, Veterans Affairs, and Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, the IRS, and the Department of the Interior. Terminations are also looming at the United States Agency for International Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and NASA.

Why? President Trump said the overhaul of the civilian federal workforce — which is being overseen by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — will save “hundreds of billions of dollars.” Multiple privacy officials who oversee the hiring of federal workers were also fired; CNN reports the move restricts outside access to government records related to security clearances granted to Musk and DOGE personnel.

What it means: Many are now calling national safety and public health into question. Federal Aviation Administration employees are among those who lost their jobs as the public’s confidence in air travel safety wavers. Some of the fired FAA employees were working on a classified early warning radar system for the Air Force that would detect incoming cruise missiles. The historically underfunded U.S. Forest Service is now tasked with managing 193 million acres of land with 3,400 fewer employees (about 10% of its workforce), as well as a funding freeze on wildfire prevention efforts. Layoffs and cuts to medical funding could also delay critical advancements in cancer research. And amidst the federal layoff confusion, the Department of Agriculture said it accidentally fired several employees working on the national H5N1 avian flu response. The agency is now scrambling to rehire them.

What happens now? Lawsuits are piling up as thousands of federal staffers challenge the legality of the White House’s mass firings and multiple unions seek temporary restraining orders. A federal judge denied a request submitted by several Democratic states to block Musk (who is not elected or Senate-confirmed) and DOGE from accessing sensitive government data, but left the door open for future attempts. Other legal filings accuse Trump and Musk of abandoning USAID field workers in dangerous situations after gutting the agency; for now, a federal judge has stalled Trump’s efforts to put 2,000 USAID employees on administrative leave and force those overseas to return to the U.S.