The Pentagon has pulled key protections for its civilian personnel, directing managers to move with “speed and conviction” to fire underperforming workers, according to a memo issued one day before the U.S. government shut down.
“Supervisors and human resources (HR) professionals are directed to act with speed and conviction to facilitate the separation from Federal service of employees performing unsuccessfully,” states a Sept. 30 memo signed by the Pentagon’s top personnel policy officer, Undersecretary of Defense Anthony Tata.
It also warns that managers will be held accountable if they don’t address “poor employee performance.”
The new guidelines, which became public Tuesday, have sparked fears that they could be used to push out anyone at the Pentagon who doesn’t agree with or toe the line on the Trump administration’s programs.
It’s unclear how many employees may have been fired since the memo took effect. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.
Nearly half of the defense civilian workforce — about 334,900 employees — have been furloughed for the shutdown, according to the department’s contingency plan released last month.
Of those remaining, about 24 percent are paid through sources other than the annual appropriations bill Congress has been unable to pass. Another 30 percent are considered “excepted” employees who must continue to work jobs such as providing medical care, emergency response or protecting human life.
Furloughed and excepted workers are not paid during a shutdown, but they are guaranteed back pay once the government reopens.
The Trump administration has attempted to fire thousands of furloughed employees while the government is closed — part of the president’s bid to greatly reduce the federal workforce in his second term — but the move has been blocked by a California federal court that found such cuts were likely illegal.
At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been on the warpath in ousting those seen as standing in the way to President Trump’s agenda, including bringing so-called “warrior ethos” back to the U.S. military.
“The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies. Personnel is policy,” Hegseth told hundreds of generals and admirals last month in an unprecedented speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va.
The memo now makes it easier for managers to fire Defense civilians, with office heads told to cite criteria used in federal job evaluations known as Douglas Factors.
The factors allow managers “flexibility to address performance issues swiftly and effectively,” according to Tata.
“This approach empowers supervisors to act decisively when performance undermines [DOD] objectives, reinforcing a culture of excellence,” the memo states, adding later that every position supports the mission, “so deficiencies in any role can warrant strong action.”
Employees targeted for firing also now only have just seven days to challenge a bad review.
The sped up firing process comes after Hegseth earlier this year ordered the Pentagon’s workforce to be cut nearly 8 percent, or about 60,000 personnel, via voluntary buyouts and attrition.
