The Trump administration announced Wednesday to 40 government employees of the Office of Financial Research they would be laid off, sources close to the matter told Reuters.
The office, which is charged with identifying looming financial risks, told the employees the layoffs are part of a broader restructuring of the agency, according to an article by Pete Schroeder for Reuters.
But these layoffs did not come as a surprise to the bureau’s staff, who were told back in January that jobs would be slashed as the administration looked to cut the office's budget by 25% to about $76 million.
From the article:
“We are working to make OFR a more efficient organization with a stronger workforce and culture to better execute on the mission,” a spokesman for the Treasury said in an email statement.
“The plan to reshape the workforce was announced to OFR employees in January, and the headcount reduction is an important step toward streamlining operations and reducing costs,” he added.
In its 2018 budget request, the OFR showed its headcount for financial year 2016 was 208, however it announced its intentions to reduce that to 139.
The OFR isn’t the only organization to see budget and employee cuts during this administration. One of Mick Mulvaney’s first actions after he took over as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was to institute a hiring freeze, stipulating that the bureau could not hire any new employees for at least 30 days.
And later, Republicans began their push in Congress to drastically cut CFPB employees’ salaries.
