Interior headquarters are located in Washington, D.C. Flickr user nostri-imago
Interior drafts plan to cut 7 percent of staff
Downsizing strategy comes in response to an OMB request, Federal Times reports.
This story has been updated.
The Interior Department is developing a plan to cut nearly 5,000 jobs by the end of fiscal 2013, according to Federal Times.
The staff reduction strategy was requested by the Office of Management and Budget and is due by March 30. OMB specifically asked Interior officials for a plan that would reduce the number of full-time staffers by 7 percent of the department’s current 70,000-employee total, the report said.
OMB spokeswoman Moira Mack downplayed the likelihood of the cuts taking effect by fiscal 2013 to Federal Times. An Interior spokesman classified the plan as an “exercise,” with no specific steps such as early retirement being discussed, and told the newspaper the department “routinely examines workforce planning options ‘with the goal of not impacting nonretiring, full-time employees.’ ”
In a follow-up statement Thursday, Mack told <i>Government Executive</i> that OMB’s 2013 workforce plan was published in the president’s budget.
“This is simply one of various planning activities that agencies undertake as a matter of prudent management,” Mack said.