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Elon Musk looks on in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., United States, February 11, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo Rights Purchase License, opens new tab
Summary
The program is an upgrade to the old Pentagon program.
OPM will lead demonstrations to encourage use in other agencies.
The program may lead to expedited mass layoffs.
Washington, May 8 (Reuters) - Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters that the Federal Human Resources Agency, which represents the centerpiece of billionaire Elon Musk's efforts to downsize the federal workforce, is preparing to launch a program to expedite employee layoffs across the U.S. government.
The program could expedite efforts to downsize government at a time when several of the larger federal agencies are preparing to implement plans to lay off tens of thousands of workers en masse.
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Since Republican President Donald Trump returned to office in January, about 260,000 government workers have accepted offers to buy out their jobs or retired early or were laid off, according to a Reuters tally. The process has not been smooth at all, as some employees were mistakenly terminated and had to be rehired.
The program is an updated version of the Pentagon program dating back decades, known as AutoRIF, which has seen little use in recent years.
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Under the supervision of Musk's Government Efficiency Administration, software developers at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management have created a more user-friendly online version in recent months that provides targets for layoffs much faster than the current labor-intensive manual process, according to four sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The program is set to be rolled out to agencies by the Office of Personnel Management at a time when Musk is stepping back from the DOGE company, which led the downsizing efforts, to focus more on Tesla and his other companies.
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The name AutoRIF is inspired by "Reduction in Force," a term used to describe mass layoffs. Three sources reported that the enhanced version of the program has been named the "Workforce Restructuring Tool," a name with a more moderate tone.
With the program's overhaul now complete, OPM will lead demonstrations and user testing and begin adding new users in the coming weeks, according to one source.
The Office of Personnel Management, the White House, the Pentagon, and Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
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Wired magazine was the first to report on the renewal efforts. But Reuters is reporting for the first time on the completion of this renewal, the potential of the new program, its launch plans, and its new name.
Work Cut Scythe
Trump created the DOGE program to update government programs, reduce spending, and significantly cut the size of the federal workforce, which he complains is bloated and wasteful.
The U.S. Department of Energy said it has saved more than $160 billion through cuts in contracts and federal employees, but it has provided little detail publicly on what it is doing to update technology to make the government more efficient.
