The Trump administration is planning mass layoffs at the IRS and Veterans Affairs (VA), aiming to cut up to half of the IRS’s 90,000 workers and eliminate as many as 83,000 VA jobs. The IRS reductions, achieved through layoffs, attrition, and buyouts, could severely impact the agency’s operations, according to former officials. At the VA, the cuts would roll back staffing to 2019 levels, despite an expansion of veterans’ healthcare needs. Critics, including Democratic lawmakers, call the moves an attack on essential services. These layoffs are part of a broader effort to reduce federal agencies under Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency.”
See "White House plans to expand mass layoffs to IRS and Veterans Affairs", Nina Lakhani, The Guardian, March 5, 2025