WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump plans to direct federal agencies to coordinate with Elon Musk’s task force to shrink the workforce and limit hiring with an exception to immigration and other safety positions, a White House official said on Tuesday.
The executive order, which is expected to be signed on Tuesday, would set rules allowing government agencies to hire no more than one employee for every four workers who leave the federal workforce, according to the official.
Additionally, the order will direct agencies to plan “for large-scale reductions in force and determine which agency components (or agencies themselves) may be eliminated or combined because their functions aren’t required by law,” the order will say, the official said.
Federal employees whose work is “critical to national security, public safety, law enforcement, and immigration enforcement” would be exempted, the official added.
Trump’s latest directive alongside billionaire ally Musk, who has been tasked as a special government employee to help carry out widespread government cuts, comes as his planned buyout for federal employees remains blocked in the courts.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Katharine Jackson and David Gregorio)
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