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In an effort to further shrink the size of its civilian workforce, the Defense Department is reopening the Deferred Resignation Program and offering early retirements or voluntary separations to its eligible employees.
In a memo signed March 28, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed senior Pentagon officials, combatant commands, and defense agency and field activity directors to begin implementing the “Workforce Acceleration and Recapitalization Initiative.”
Hegseth said the intent of the initiative is “not about a target number of layoffs” at the Defense Department, but rather about “executing a top-to-bottom methodology that results in a force structure that is lean, mean, and prepared to win.”
“DoD civilians already support mission-critical requirements, but an honest analysis will reveal opportunities to consolidate duplicative functions, reject excessive bureaucracy and implement technological solutions that automate routine tasks, particularly at the headquarters level,” Hegseth wrote in the memo.
“The net effect will be a reduction in the number of civilian full-time equivalent positions, and increased resources in the areas where we need them most.”
The memo lays out two courses of action to implement Hegseth’s order: shrink the size of the civilian workforce through voluntary resignation and early retirement programs, and require the military services to provide a future-state organizational chart.
DoD-specific DRP and VERA
The White House first offered the entire federal workforce the option to resign from their positions in exchange for eight months of pay at the end of January.
The Office of Personnel Management sent out an email directing federal workers to make their decision by Feb. 6. Since then, approximately 21,000 civilian workers left the DoD through this program.
At the time, the program excluded positions related to national security, public safety, and immigration enforcement.
Hegseth said exemptions should be rare this time, and that maximum participation in the program is encouraged to “minimize the number of involuntary actions that may be required to achieve the strategic objectives.”
Involuntary actions could include a number of methods used to reduce the civilian workforce, including a reduction in force (RIF) — a bureaucratic term for layoffs. Last month, federal agencies were directed to provide outlines for reductions in force, but it is still unclear when agencies will fully implement those plans.
The Trump administration is using RIFs as just one method to scale down the size of the federal workforce. Thousands of probationary workers have already been fired across the federal government. According to the court records, the Defense Department has laid off 365 probationary employees — some of them were reinstated following a judge’s order to rehire all fired workers.
But Federal News Network reported that not all fired employees have been brought back despite the court’s ruling. A former Missile Defense Agency employee said the agency has not reinstated the workers it fired.
A hiring freeze that went into effect at the beginning of March is also shrinking the civilian workforce by about 6,000 people per month.
“As long as we maintain the hiring freeze, we’re gaining thousands towards the workforce reduction target each month just by instituting it,” a senior official told reporters on March 18.
Hegseth announced the department’s goal is to reduce its civilian workforce by 5 to 8%, or approximately 50,000 to 60,000 employees in an effort to “align its civilian workforce with national security priorities.”
“To deliver on my commitment to urgently rebuild our military, revive the warrior ethos and deliver maximum deterrence, we must aggressively refocus every available resource towards our core mission. In addition to our Fiscal Year 2026 President’s Budget Relook, we will realign the size of our civilian workforce and strategically restructure it to supercharge our American warfighters consistent with my interim National Defense Strategy guidance,” Hegseth said in the memo.
The secretaries of the military departments, and defense agencies and field activities directors, have until April 11 to deliver them. These plans will reflect required analysis and include functional areas, consolidated management hierarchy, and position titles and count clearly depicted.
“Important changes are required to put the department on ready footing to deter our enemies and fight for peace,” Hegseth said in the memo.
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