Workers were laid off last week at the Department of Transportation agency responsible for overseeing the safety of automobile manufacturers — including Elon Musk’s Tesla — and at the agency for ensuring pipelines are safe, according to four people with knowledge of the personnel moves.
The layoffs, which seem to be targeting those with less than a year’s tenure, come amid a governmentwide effort undertaken by Musk and his cost-cutters, who have barnstormed across agencies looking to ditch spending and reduce the federal workforce.
Over the weekend, reports surfaced that hundreds of people, including technical staff who support air traffic control functions, had been let go at the Federal Aviation Administration. According to those interviewed, granted anonymity to discuss the matter candidly, layoffs also hit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the Maritime Administration (MARAD) and the DOT’s office of the undersecretary.
“To my understanding it’s pretty indiscriminate across all modal agencies at the department,” one former DOT employee told POLITICO.
