The Trump administration is directing federal agencies to prepare for mass layoffs of their workers, according to the heads of the White House budget office and Office of Personnel Management. Budget Director Russell Vought and acting OPM Director Charles Ezell said in the memo to the heads of departments and agencies the they will

The memo expands the Republican president’s effort to downsize the federal workforce, directing agencies to develop plans to eliminate employee positions.

If massive layoffs seen in other government agencies hit the FHA, it could disrupt loan programs critical to many first-time homebuyers.

The Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent agency that hears appeals by government employees when they are fired or disciplined, issued the decision at the behest of a watchdog agency whose leader's removal by Trump has been stalled by the courts.

Federal agencies must develop plans to eliminate employee positions, according to a memo distributed by President Donald Trump ’s administration that sets in motion what could become a sweeping realignment of American government.

An independent federal oversight agency has deemed at least some of President Trump’s mass firings of probationary period employees unlawful, creating a pathway for those employees to regain their jobs.