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Federal Workers Hit with Second Wave of Emails Demanding Job Details

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X/Twitter, gestures as he attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris, France, June 16, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

The Trump administration sent out a second round of emails on Friday evening demanding all federal employees summarize their work over the past week after the first effort fizzled amid a wave of confusing directives.

The emails from the government’s human resources arm, the US Office of Personnel Management, were sent to multiple agencies, Reuters has confirmed, and asked workers to list five things they accomplished during the week.

The move marks a renewed effort by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency team to assess the performance of government employees as the administration looks to engage in mass layoffs to dramatically trim the federal footprint.

“The President has made it clear that this is mandatory for the executive branch,” Musk wrote on X. “Anyone working on classified or other sensitive matters is still required to respond if they receive the email, but can simply reply that their work is sensitive.”

Musk attempted a similar tack last week, along with a threat that noncompliant workers could be fired, but he was stymied when some agencies such as the State and Justice departments told their employees to stick to the chain of command.

Ultimately, OPM informed agencies that responding to the emails was voluntary.

But Musk, with President Donald Trump’s backing, continued to press for the emails as a means they said to hold workers accountable. Both men suggested that some federal employees on the payroll don’t exist.

The second round of emails do not include any threat of retaliation for noncompliance but say workers are expected to send responses at the beginning of each work week.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed Pentagon workers to comply, according to media reports, but the State Department again told their employees to hold off, according to a directive seen by Reuters.

The acting US attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin, also told workers in his office to comply, according to a message seen by Reuters.

Reuters was able to confirm the emails were also sent to employees at the Internal Revenue Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Institutes for Health. Those agencies have all been targeted by DOGE for layoffs.

Musk’s team last week instructed agencies across the government to submit plans by March 13 for a “significant reduction” in staffing across the federal workforce.

Already, about 100,000 workers have taken buyouts or been fired after DOGE was dispatched by Trump to gut federal staffing and spending. There are about 2.3 million federal employees in all.

The layoffs have occurred in such haphazard fashion that some agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration have been forced to recall key personnel in order to ensure public safety.

Most recently, the Trump administration has pulled the plug on a team of tech savvy civil servants that helped build the IRS’ free tax filing service and revamped websites across government.

In an email sent overnight to employees of the US General Services Administration (GSA) and seen by Reuters, the GSA’s Director of Technology Transformation Services Thomas Shedd said the team — known as 18F — had been identified as “non critical.”

Formed at the tail end of the Barack Obama administration, the unit acted as an internal tech consultancy within government, ferreting out duplication and waste, streamlining bureaucratic processes, and making public-facing websites more user friendly.

Questions about Musk’s role and DOGE are at the heart of multiple lawsuits seeking to block them from accessing government systems and confidential data. The suits allege that Musk and DOGE are violating the Constitution by wielding the kind of vast power that only comes from agencies created through the US Congress or appointments made with confirmation by the US Senate.

Musk’s actions have also caused some tension and confusion among Trump’s White House aides, although Trump himself is said to be wholly on board with the effort.

The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Musk is not a Cabinet-level official and did not face US Senate confirmation. The Trump administration has been evasive about exactly what role he plays within DOGE.

The post Federal Workers Hit with Second Wave of Emails Demanding Job Details first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Report: IDF Probes Whether Houthis Used Iranian Cluster Bomb-Bearing Missile

Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

i24 NewsThe Israeli military said Saturday it launched a probe into the failure of its defenses to fully intercept a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi jihadists, parts of which struck not far from the Ben Gurion airport on Friday night.

According to the Ynet website, one of the hypotheses being examined is that the projectile contained cluster munitions, similar to those used by Iran to fire at Israeli cities during the 12-day war in June. Cluster munitions pose a challenge to interceptors as they disperse smaller explosives over a wide area.

In June, Iran fired several missiles carrying scattered small bombs with the aim of increasing civilian casualties.

The IDF said on Saturday that its initial review suggests the ballistic missile from Yemen likely fragmented in mid-air. Five interceptors from various systems engaged with the missile, including THAAD, Arrow, David Sling & Iron Dome.

Authorities said that shrapnel impacted a house in the central Israeli moshav of Ginaton, yet no one was hurt, with the fragment landing in the house’s backyard.

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Iran Forces Kill Six Militants, IRNA Reports, Israel Link Seen

The Iranian flag is seen flying over a street in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 3, 2023. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Iranian security forces shot dead six militants in a clash in southeastern Iran on Saturday, a day after armed rebels killed five police officers in the restive region, the official news agency IRNA reported.

IRNA said evidence showed the group was linked to Israel and may have been trained by Israel‘s Mossad spy agency. There was no immediate Israeli reaction to the allegation.

Another two members of the militant group were arrested, the report said. All but one of the militants were foreign, it added, without giving their nationality.

Iranian police said this month they had arrested as many as 21,000 suspects during the 12-day war with Israel in June.

Iran’s southeast has been the scene of sporadic clashes between security forces and armed groups, including Sunni militants and separatists who say they are fighting for greater rights and autonomy.

Tehran says some of them have ties to foreign powers and are involved in cross-border smuggling and insurgency.

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Benny Gantz Urges Time-Limited National Unity Government to Further Chances of Hostage Deal

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz attends his party’s meeting at the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, June 27, 2022. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

i24 NewsBlue and White Party leader Benny Gantz on Saturday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition politicians to form a temporary national unity government to further the chances of bringing home the hostages held in Gaza.

Addressing Netanyahu, Yair Lapid and Avigdor Liberman, Gantz said that the proposed government’s two supreme priorities would be the release of Israeli hostages held by the jihadists of Hamas and instituting universal conscription in Israel by ending the exemption from military service enjoyed by the ultra-Orthodox.

Upon attainment of the goals, the government would dissolve and call an election.

“The government’s term will begin with a hostage deal that brings everyone home,” Gantz said in a video address. “Within weeks, we will formulate an enlistment outline that would see our ultra-Orthodox brethren drafted to the military and ease the burden on those already serving. Finally, we will announce an agreed-upon election date in the spring of 2026 and pass a law to dissolve the Knesset [Israeli parliament] accordingly. This is what’s right for Israel.”

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