Staffing gaps caused by the Pentagon’s deferred resignation initiative and other cuts to the civilian workforce have led to higher costs, poor oversight of base projects, and setbacks in both planning and completing those projects.
“My team and subcommittee staff have visited and inspected installations throughout Georgia this year. In nearly every case, we heard that the deferred resignation program and civilian workforce reductions have resulted in serious shortages in engineering, housing oversight, support for service members, facilities maintenance, and property management,” Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) stated during the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing.
Dale Marks, assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations, and environment, confirmed that the Defense Department is monitoring personnel losses in essential installation support positions that are harming military construction efforts.
Marks noted that the department has granted waivers so installations and military branches can keep hiring for these vital roles.
He added that the department is also gearing up for major investments aimed at rebuilding the skilled trades workforce and broadening recruitment channels via collaborations with universities, trade schools, and STEM initiatives.
“There’s a severe shortage of skilled tradespeople across the U.S. Right now, America is short about 2.9 million skilled trade workers. So what the department is doing is preparing to launch substantial investments—not just in skilled trades to tackle these gaps, but across the entire defense industrial base—so we can partner with STEM organizations, universities, and trade schools to revitalize this pipeline,” Marks explained.
“In the short term, our focus is on securing the waivers, authorities, and incentives needed to attract as much of this talent as possible, as quickly as we can, to address these challenges,” he continued.
Marks committed to delivering a report to the subcommittee outlining how many Defense Department employees in engineering, housing oversight, facilities maintenance, and service member support roles were lost due to the deferred resignation program.
“It’s a self-inflicted wound to have used such a blunt approach to workforce cuts that we’ve pushed out people in critical roles—the very individuals who help installations determine how much time and money are needed to complete important projects,” Ossoff remarked.
Last year, the Trump administration initially introduced the DRP, which allowed eligible federal workers to resign while continuing to receive pay for several months without reporting to work. Following the initial rollout by the Office of Personnel Management, individual agencies started offering the program directly to their staff.
The Army, for example, approved several rounds of DRP last year as part of its broader transformation effort.
However, the deferred resignation program wasn’t the only method the Defense Department employed to downsize and reorganize its civilian staff.
Earlier this year, the Navy initiated a department-wide organizational review that may result in major restructuring of its civilian workforce, potentially cutting total civilian positions by 5% to 20%.
At the same time, the Army recently began a service-wide “rebalancing effort” requiring civilian workers deemed surplus to either take a new assignment or face potential separation from federal employment.
Last month, Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.) remarked during an Armed Services Committee hearing that employees at Rock Island Arsenal—many of them veterans with decades of experience—were puzzled about why they were labeled surplus when “no one else anywhere performs the work” they do. They were given just two to five days to accept reassignment or risk being let go.
“They have five days to decide whether to uproot their families or lose their jobs. Most people take longer than five days to choose a used car or a dishwasher. How can we possibly think this supports our mission—cutting staff at Joint Munitions Command while we’re burning through munitions at an alarming rate? It seems incredibly short-sighted,” Sorensen said.
Through the deferred resignation program, the Defense Department shed more than 61,600 employees—roughly 8% of its civilian workforce.
A recent analysis by the Partnership for Public Service estimated that federal workers who accepted deferred resignation offers cost the government approximately $4.5 billion in salary and benefits.
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