DOGE-related workforce cuts have left the Navy with a ‘big challenge,’ CIO says
“In some cases, we lost some people that we wanted to lose, but we lost some people that we didn’t want to lose,” CIO of the Department of the Navy Jane Rathbun said.
DoDIIS 2023 Ms. Jane Rathbun (Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Wade Costin)
WASHINGTON — The Department of the Navy is facing a “big challenge” in the wake of workforce cuts spurred by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, the service’s Chief Information Officer said Thursday.
Jane Rathbun said that the losses have been a result of DOGE’s deferred resignation program coupled with return-to-office mandates.
“It’s been a big challenge for us,” Rathbun said of the cuts during a Potomac Officer’s Club event Thursday. “The first set of directives coming out for all agencies was the ‘Fork in the Road’ or the deferred resignation program. We were able to say where we thought people should be exempt, like in the cyberspace, cyber workforce. … Their position might end up being exempt, but they could still take the ‘Fork in the Road.”’
“That’s scary,” she added.
The “Fork in the Road”, or the deferred resignation program, was an initiative taken up by the Office of Personnel Management under the direction of DOGE that allowed federal employees to enter a paid leave status for several months prior to resigning or retiring. The program ended on Feb. 12 across the federal government, but the DoD extended its own deferred resignation program until April 14 in an effort to reduce its civilian workforce.
Echoing previous comments, Rathbun was not directly critical of DOGE, rather emphasizing that her office was “very much in partnership with them, because we see the need for efficiencies too.”
However, she acknowledged that she’s lost people throughout the various program executive offices across the DON that she deemed as necessary.
“In some cases, we lost some people that we wanted to lose, but we lost some people that we didn’t want to lose because of the remote work change, and so that’s really challenging. How are we going to keep the right people?” she said.
When selecting those who will be exempt from certain workforce cuts, Rathbun said she wants to prioritize those skilled in the information warfare portfolio.
“Hopefully, and we still don’t know the answers to these things, we will be given the ability to hire for strategic positions and hire for strategic need,” she said. “In my opinion, the information warfare portfolio is critical right now to the war fight, like we are not going to have more ships overnight, but we could really exponentially change the war fight with the kinds of things that the IT, cyber, information warfare portfolio deliver.”
“So I think hopefully we will be given the ability to bring more, bring the right people in, or maintain the billets that we have, even though we’ve lost some people.”
As of March 18, the Pentagon has approved nearly 21,000 employee resignations in line with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s effort to cut 5 to 8 percent of the military’s civilian workforce, the Military Times reported.
