Every DOI Employee Asked To Justify Ongoing Employment

National Park Rangers and other Interior employees asked to submit resumes ahead of reductions in force

The Department of the Interior is asking every single one of its 70,000 employees to submit resumes supporting their ongoing employment, ahead of mass reductions in force. The measure includes employees at the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and more.

Here’s the email that was distributed to every DOI employee this week:

The quick background here is that Republicans are trying to find $5 trillion over 10 years of savings in the federal budget in order to justify the tax cut Trump wants to give billionaires. In this dysfunctional Congress, the only legislation Republicans will be able to actually get signed into law will come through a process called budget reconciliation. And, as part of that, anything that adds to the deficit (tax cuts for Elon Musk and his companies) must be offset by equivalent savings (firing federal employees).

But the maddening thing about all this is that the ENTIRE FEDERAL WORKFORCE costs only about $291 billion per year. Even if DOGE fired every single federal employee, they’d still fall over $2 trillion short of their $5 trillion-over-10-years goal. And reports out this week show how deeply unserious these people are. Musk and his minions apparently had no idea that firing everyone they’ve fired so far would actually cost $135 billion more than it saves in the first year.

I am making a concerted effort to swear less in these articles. Please take a second to do that on your own.

“This was sent to all employees of Interior,” clarifies a manager at a different federal agency, who spoke with me on condition of anonymity. “The re-org for now consists of: ‘Everyone is fired. Submit your resume to apply for your current job, then we (DOGE), decide if we (DOGE) still want that job. If we do, nothing happens and your life as an employee continues on like normal. If we don’t, we’ll RIF you.’”

“Essentially they’re making everyone reapply for their own jobs,” they continue. “Without giving anyone any clarity into what will keep people around.”

Remember that this is all being done by some random DOGE operative who’s illegally holding a role that should have been Senate-confirmed, and to whom the supposed Secretary of the Interior has formally ceded all authority.

I’ll keep on keeping you updated as this continues to develop.

Top photo: Department of Interior

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