Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell signed a directive on February 13 instructing federal agencies to dismiss probationary employees -- workers in their first or second years with fewer civil service protections. OPM demanded agencies complete the firings by February 17. Nearly 25,000 federal workers were terminated across government agencies including the Department of Education, EPA, HHS, USDA, and the VA, with termination letters uniformly citing "performance" as the reason despite many workers having received positive performance reviews weeks earlier.
The mass firings represented DOGE's most dramatic impact on the federal workforce, gutting institutional capacity across agencies responsible for food safety, veterans' health care, environmental protection, and scientific research. Federal district courts in Northern California and Maryland later found the firings were illegal and ordered reinstatement, with Judge William Alsup rejecting the administration's claim that each agency acted independently. Appeals to the Merit Systems Protection Board skyrocketed over 2,100% in the weeks following the firings. The episode crystallized the pattern of DOGE's approach: move fast, break things, and force courts to clean up the damage after the fact.