Department of Energy officials scrambled to map and ultimately cut their own workforce in the frantic onset of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Emails obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News under the Freedom of Information Act offer an inside look at how senior executives at DOE moved quickly to fulfill the president’s campaign pledge of reducing government.
Empowered by a host of executive orders, aides affiliated with tech mogul Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency served as the Trump administration’s taskmasters in guiding those officials in slashing costs across the department.
Records show it become almost immediately apparent that hundreds of jobs at the Energy Department were under threat last January.
In an email time stamped a few minutes before midnight on a Saturday, Jamie Sullivan, then senior adviser to the Office of Personnel Management director, thanked DOE officials for their help that first week of the new administration.
“Know we have thrown a lot at you, so wanted to consolidate outstanding requests into one email,” Sullivan said in the Jan. 25 message. “Apologies in advance as I’m sure you have sent some of these (my inbox is a nightmare).”
Sullivan was tied to the DOGE team at OPM. He and others linked to the cost-cutting commission were often requesting and receiving reams of information about DOE personnel on the granular level, according to the emails.
Donald Kettl, professor emeritus and former dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, said at the beginning of a new administration, OPM and the Office of Management and Budget want to ensure agencies don’t scatter in different directions.
“What was very different this time was the immediate role of DOGE,” Kettl said. “The DOGErs had the instinct — the correct instinct — that getting control of the government required gaining leverage over personnel, information, budgets and structure.”
OPM was the fulcrum for several of Trump’s first orders on the federal workforce, releasing advice and staying on top of agencies to meet the president’s demands. The administration right away was pushing to end diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs; root out offices not required under law; fire probationary employees; and institute a hiring freeze.
In response to questions, OPM spokesperson McLaurine Pinover said the agency “serves as the federal government’s chief human resources agency and as such provides guidance to departments and agencies across government.”
“Individual agencies make their own operational and personnel decisions, including hiring actions and workforce structure,” Pinover said.
New hires hit the bricks
“We rescinded 394 offers,” said Erin Moore, then the Energy Department’s chief human capital officer, in a Jan. 22 update on Trump’s hiring freeze.
The only job offers not pulled back were for Nuclear Materials Couriers, who transport dangerous nuclear materials across the country in armored, unmarked tractor-trailer trucks. They fell under the freeze’s national security and public safety exemption, according to OPM guidance.
Moore added, “Of the 97 JOAs, we’ve pulled all but 12,” likely referring to job opportunity announcements, or job ads. Ads not taken down were for national security and public safety positions, including electricians, linemen, cybersecurity specialists, nuclear couriers and those working with naval reactors.
“Thanks very much for your update, Erin,” replied Amanda Scales, then OPM’s chief of staff connected to DOGE who worked at Musk’s company xAI.
Offices were also being prepared for elimination at DOE.
Moore shared a list of four “Departmental Elements (DE)” that “do not have statutory functions specifically prescribed to them.”
“These 4 DEs include approximately 400 people,” she said.
Those elements were the Office of State and Community Energy Programs, the Grid Deployment Office, the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains, and the Office of Critical and Emerging Technologies. Several of those offices have since seen staff depart in droves as part of the administration’s “deferred resignation” program.
Moore has left DOE too and is now Loudon County, Virginia’s human resources director, according to an announcement this August.
OPM was also consulted on Trump’s other workforce policies, including his return-to-office mandate for federal employees.
“I would like to discuss this with you today, if possible,” said Ingrid Kolb, a longtime DOE career official who was serving as acting secretary, in a Jan. 31 email. Kolb left the department later this year.
“Sure, ready at your convenience at number below,” Clayton Cromer, OPM’s deputy general counsel affiliated with DOGE, later replied.
The Energy Department was swept up in the early rush of Trump’s personnel moves designed to reduce the federal payroll and downsize agencies.
“The blizzard of actions at the beginning of 2025, however, was much heavier than in previous administrations,” Kettl said, adding DOGE filled OPM’s role early on and “had a very strong voice about what it was attempting to accomplish.”
DEI on the chopping block
The Trump administration was also seeking to end diversity practices across the federal government.
“As discussed over the phone, when you compile the list of 69 DEI employees placed on admin leave, please share with Amanda and myself,” Sullivan said in a Jan. 24 email.
Moore at DOE replied within minutes with a spreadsheet table listing those staffers. “Here you go!” she said.
In January, the Energy Department also drafted a reduction-in-force, or RIF, plan for its diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs.
That document noted seven employees were in the Office of Minority Impact before the 2024 presidential election and had since been reassigned elsewhere at the department. They either landed in the Solar Energy Technologies Office or the Loan Program Office.
“DOE requests to end their administrative leave and return to duty in other Departmental Elements,” the RIF plan said.
It’s not clear what happened to them. A department statement didn’t address questions for this story, including whether those employees returned to work.
“The Department of Energy is advancing its mission to deliver affordable, reliable, and secure energy for all Americans while strengthening efficiency and ensuring responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars,” said DOE spokesperson Katie Fairclough.
Nick Bednar, an associate law professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, said the administration’s layoffs, which have been threatened during the ongoing government shutdown as well, has shifted the growing workload to fewer staffers.
“Among federal employees, RIFs are often derisively referred to as the ‘Hunger Games’ because they force employees to compete against one another for a dwindling number of positions and are profoundly demoralizing,” Bednar said.
Validating resignation offers
Perhaps the most attention-grabbing move by the Trump administration last January was offering government workers to go on paid leave and voluntarily resign later in the year. The “deferred resignation” program, otherwise known as the “Fork in the Road,” was emailed to more than 2 million federal employees at that time.
The Energy Department and other agencies were asked to validate that offer as staffers were shocked by the mass email.
“I am writing to request that you respond to this email with the word ‘YES’ to confirm that you’ve sent a message to your workforce … that the Fork offer is valid, lawful and will be honored,” said the Chief Human Capital Officers Council team at OPM in a Jan. 31 email.
Moore later forwarded the DOE email about the resignation program to Sullivan. “Attached is the message sent,” she said.
To sweeten the pot to opt into the program, the department requested that OPM grant Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, or VERA, so employees could take advantage of a retirement package as well.
“Attached is DOE’s request for VERA for the entire agency for DRP,” Moore said in a Jan. 31 email.
The personnel office also requested agencies indentify their employees on probationary or trial period status. Generally, those staffers are in their first year of federal service and considered much easier to fire.
The Energy Department complied with OPM’s demand but cautioned more review was needed.
“Please note, a comprehensive evaluation of employee employment data will be required to fully assess the accuracy,” Moore said in a Jan. 24 email to Scales. “As such, the information provided may be subject to change.”
A summary that followed showed there was a “Grand Total” of 1,394 probationary or trial period employees at DOE, including 279 at the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Washington was later in an uproar about firings of probationary staff at NNSA, which oversees the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Many of those terminations were later rescinded by the agency’s head.
By February, thousands of probationary staffers were fired across the government, including at DOE. A federal judge found in September that OPM illegally directed agencies to fire those employees, falsely citing performance issues.
The turmoil at DOE as their workforce is reshaped has caused morale to sink, Bednar said. It could also hinder the administration’s agenda.
“The administration’s approach has fostered a culture of distrust between the president and the career workforce — one that is unhealthy for effective governance — and has damaged the federal government’s credibility as an employer,” the associate law professor said.
Contact this reporter on Signal at KevinBogardus.89.
