GSA backs off planned layoffs within its technology team after court order

The General Services Administration is abandoning plans for additional layoffs within its Technology Transformation Services after a federal judge ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration must pause any layoffs underway and rescind layoffs issued since the start of the government shutdown on Oct. 1.

TTS director Thomas Shedd told employees via email this week that the agency is rescinding the notices of an intention to issue a reduction in force, or layoff, that it sent to employees within the TTS Office of Awards, Regulatory and Oversight Systems and its Digital Services Division in April. 

TTS oversees technology solutions like the government’s identity proofing system, Login.gov; FedRAMP, a security standards program for cloud products and services; and Cloud.gov, a shared service for government agencies to move to the cloud.

Shedd told staff in March that the TTS workforce would be cut in half as the team narrowed its work to only that required by statute, deemed “critical” or within the priorities of the administration. 

Overall, TTS staffing is down by 67% since Jan. 25, according to a recent inspector general report. GSA completely eliminated the tech consultancy within TTS, called 18F, in March.

Shedd told the inspector general that TTS “made the most aggressive changes to meet workforce optimization mandates, due in part to its small size and political leadership.” 

GSA will "continue to assess workforce needs and priorities as we consider any future re-sizing efforts for these teams" at the end of January, he told staff in the recent email. “TTS will explore gaps across the organization and consider staff reassignments.”

“TTS continues to evaluate its workforce needs, acting in the best interest of the customer agencies we serve and the American taxpayers,” a GSA spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW in a statement.

The new GSA inspector general report listed fallout from staffing reductions as a top challenge for the agency, which will soon have new leadership on board. The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nominee for the agency head, financial executive Ed Forst, on Thursday. 

“Although the president directed agencies to develop reorganization plans to most efficiently deliver their statutorily required functions, GSA undertook widespread staffing reductions before it had effective reorganization plans in place,” the report reads. “This resulted in a series of unintended consequences. GSA should assess its reorganization efforts to ensure it has the resources and skill sets necessary to fulfill its statutory mission while meeting the president’s call for efficiency and savings.”

In one case, a construction contractor partnering with GSA reached out to the IG because the entire Public Buildings Service team it had worked with was gone and it no longer had any contacts within the agency. GSA can no longer adequately manage its construction workload due to staffing cuts, the auditors said, nor can it properly oversee or negotiate the federal government's leases. 

The IG found similar issues plaguing GSA throughout its operational areas. GSA has shed 40% of its IT workforce since January, for example. 

At TTS, GSA sent approximately 130 notices of an “intention” to RIF in April to people within its Office of the Integrated Award Environment and Office of Regulatory and Oversight Systems, as well as parts of the Office of Solutions.

TTS staff received additional communication regarding the potential RIFs following the court order this week, which applied specifically to the departments of Education and State, as well as GSA and the Small Business Administration. That order sought to bring the Trump administration in compliance with the spending law that ended the shutdown last month.

“No federal funds may be used to initiate, carry out, implement, or otherwise notice a reduction in force to reduce the number of employees within any department, agency, or office of the federal government” through Jan. 30, the continuing resolution ordered. Shedd told staff that TTS would determine its next steps for potential further employee cuts at that time. 

Two regional GSA employees unaffiliated with TTS who originally received layoff notices in April testified in the RIF lawsuit that they received final separation notices during the shutdown. The court ordered all of those layoffs rescinded. 

While it did not appear the TTS workforce received any communication regarding their intent-to-RIF notices during the shutdown, GSA has still opted to — for now — rescind those actions as well. 

“There was never a clear justification made for why these cuts made sense, other than ‘we just want fewer of you here.’ Which is hilarious because the affected teams are made up of engineers, designers, and program managers — the exact skill sets the administration is now trying to recruit,” one current GSA employee told Nextgov/FCW about TTS cuts. 

“All they accomplished was traumatizing and distracting a hundred people for eight months by having the daily threat of being fired effective immediately hanging over them,” they said.