Trump administration rehires hundreds of federal employees laid off by
DOGE
[September 24, 2025]
By JOSHUA GOODMAN and RYAN J. FOLEY
MIAMI (AP) — Hundreds of federal employees who lost their jobs in Elon
Musk's cost-cutting blitz are being asked to return to work.
The General Services Administration has given the employees — who
managed government workspaces — until the end of the week to accept or
decline reinstatement, according to an internal memo obtained by The
Associated Press. Those who accept must report for duty on Oct. 6 after
what amounts to a seven-month paid vacation, during which time the GSA
in some cases racked up high costs — passed along to taxpayers — to stay
in dozens of properties whose leases it had slated for termination or
were allowed to expire.
“Ultimately, the outcome was the agency was left broken and
understaffed,” said Chad Becker, a former GSA real estate official.
“They didn’t have the people they needed to carry out basic functions.”
Becker, who represents owners with government leases at Arco Real Estate
Solutions, said GSA has been in a “triage mode” for months. He said the
sudden reversal of the downsizing reflects how Musk and his Department
of Government Efficiency had gone too far, too fast.
Rehiring of purged federal employees
GSA was established in the 1940s to centralize the acquisition and
management of thousands of federal workplaces. Its return to work
request mirrors rehiring efforts at in several agencies targeted by
DOGE. Last month, the IRS said it would allow some employees who took a
resignation offer to remain on the job. The Labor Department has also
brought back some employees who took buyouts, while the National Park
Service earlier reinstated a number of purged employees.
Critical to the work of such agencies is the GSA, which manages many of
the buildings. Starting in March, thousands of GSA employees left the
agency as part of programs that encouraged them to resign or take early
retirement. Hundreds of others — those subject to the recall notice —
were dismissed as part of an aggressive push to reduce the size of the
federal workforce. Though those employees did not show up for work, some
continue to get paid.
GSA representatives didn’t respond to detailed questions about the
return-to-work notice, which the agency issued Friday. They also
declined to discuss the agency's headcount, staffing decisions or the
potential cost overruns generated by reversing its plans to terminate
leases.
“GSA’s leadership team has reviewed workforce actions and is making
adjustments in the best interest of the customer agencies we serve and
the American taxpayers,” an agency spokesman said in an email.
Democrats have assailed the Trump administration's indiscriminate
approach to slashing costs and jobs. Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona, the
top Democrat on the subcommittee overseeing the GSA, told AP there is no
evidence that reductions at the agency “delivered any savings.”
“It’s created costly confusion while undermining the very services
taxpayers depend on,” he said.
[to top of second column]
|
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House,
Friday, Sept. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon
DOGE identified the agency, which had about 12,000 employees at the
start of the Trump administration, as a chief target of its campaign
to reduce fraud, waste and abuse in the federal government.
A small cohort of Musk's trusted aides embedded in GSA’s
headquarters, sometimes sleeping on cots on the agency’s sixth
floor, and pursued plans to abruptly cancel nearly half of the 7,500
leases in the federal portfolio. DOGE also wanted GSA to sell
hundreds of federally owned buildings with the goal of generating
billions in savings.
GSA started by sending more than 800 lease cancellation notices to
landlords, in many cases without informing the government tenants.
The agency also published a list of hundreds of government buildings
that were targeted for sale.
DOGE's massive job cuts produced little savings
Pushback to GSA's dumping of its portfolio was swift, and both
initiatives have been dialed back. More than 480 leases slated for
termination by DOGE have since been spared. Those leases were for
offices scattered around the country that are occupied by such
agencies as the IRS, Social Security Administration and Food and
Drug Administration.
DOGE's “Wall of Receipts,” which once boasted that the lease
cancellations alone would save nearly $460 million, has since
reduced that estimate to $140 million by the end of July, according
to Becker, the former GSA real estate official.
Meanwhile, GSA embarked on massive job cuts. The administration
slashed GSA’s headquarters staff by 79%, its portfolio managers by
65% and facilities managers by 35%, according to a federal official
briefed on the situation. The official, who was not authorized to
speak to the media, provided the statistics on condition of
anonymity.
As a result of the internal turmoil, 131 leases expired without the
government actually vacating the properties, the official said. The
situation has exposed the agencies to steep fees because property
owners have not been able to rent out those spaces to other tenants.
The public may soon get a clearer picture of what transpired at the
agency.
The Government Accountability Office, an independent congressional
watchdog, is examining the GSA’s management of its workforce, lease
terminations and planned building disposals and expects to issue
findings in the coming months, said David Marroni, a senior GAO
official.
___
Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
