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By Aliss Higham
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The General Services Administration (GSA) has asked hundreds of former employees who were pushed out during the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) cost-cutting campaign to return to their jobs.
Why It Matters
DOGE had identified the GSA, which employed about 12,000 people at the beginning of the Trump administration in January, as a prime target for eliminating alleged fraud, waste and abuse.
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Beginning in March, thousands of GSA employees departed the agency through programs that incentivized resignations or early retirements. Meanwhile, a small team of DOGE workers remained at GSA headquarters, occasionally staying overnight, and pushed forward plans to abruptly terminate almost half of the agency's 7,500 federal leases under the direction of Elon Musk, who headed the initiative at the time.
What To Know
According to an internal memo obtained by the Associated Press, the agency gave the workers—who oversee federal office space and facilities—until the end of the week to accept or decline reinstatement. Those who agreed must return to duty on October 6, returning to the office after about seven paid months away.
"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," a spokesperson for the agency told Newsweek.
"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 landlords with government leases at Arco Real Estate Solutions, added that the agency operated in a "triage mode" for months as it scrambled with fewer staff members.
Created in the 1940s to centralize federal real estate and procurement, the GSA is central to how the government manages its office footprint. Beginning in March, thousands of staff left amid incentives to resign or retire early, and hundreds more were dismissed as part of an effort to shrink the federal workforce. While many did not return to work, some continued to be paid in the months that followed.
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The rehiring push at GSA mirrors similar reversals elsewhere in the federal government after DOGE targeted numerous agencies for steep staffing reductions. In recent weeks, the IRS allowed some employees who had accepted resignation offers to stay on, the Labor Department has reinstated certain workers who took buyouts, and the National Park Service has brought back a number of purged staff, the Associated Press reported.
Democrats have seized on the reversals as evidence that the cuts were hasty and wasteful. "It's created costly confusion while undermining the very services taxpayers depend on," said Representative Greg Stanton, the top Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees the GSA.
What Happens Next
Workers selected for reinstatement have until October 6 to accept or decline their offers.
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