USPS listed such issues as mismanagement of the agency’s retirement assets and Workers’ Compensation Program, as well as an array of regulatory requirements that the letter described as “restricting normal business practice.”

The Trump administration had already been whittling the agency’s staff, though buyout offers and the termination of probationary employees. After Tuesday’s layoffs, the Education Department’s staff will sit at roughly half of its previous 4,100, the agency said.

For decades, the Presidential Management Fellows program was seen as a building block for the civil service with the expectation that the few who earned the position would one day become leaders in the federal workforce. Now the road ahead is uncertain.

Across-the-board cuts at the Social Security Administration are prompting questions about how the benefits of millions of recipients may be affected. Here’s a look at cuts to the agency, which serves more than 70 million Americans, and potential effects for recipients.

Kwame Raoul’s office joined a coalition of 20 attorneys general who are seeking a temporary restraining order against numerous federal agencies to stop what he’s called the “illegal mass layoffs.”

The country’s bitterly tribal politics are spilling into text chains, social media posts and heated conversations as Americans absorb the reality of the government’s cost-cutting measures. Expecting sympathy, some axed workers are finding family and friends who instead are steadfast in their support of what they see as a bloated government’s waste.

Veterans have already been speaking out against the cuts at the VA that so far had included a few thousand employees and hundreds of contracts. More than 25% of the VA’s workforce is comprised of veterans.

The Department of Government Efficiency, run by Trump adviser Elon Musk, published an updated list Monday of nearly 2,300 contracts that agencies terminated in recent weeks across the federal government.

Park advocates say the permanent staff cuts will leave hundreds of national parks — including some of the most well-known and most heavily visited sites — understaffed and facing tough decisions about operating hours, public safety and resource protection.

More than 200 people rallied in downtown Chicago on Tuesday to push back on President Donald Trump’s sweeping efforts to cut government spending and reduce the size of the federal workforce.

“He has stuck a middle finger in the face of the American people,” U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood (14th District) said, “and it’s unacceptable.”

The move comes less than three weeks since the midair collision over Washington, DC, that killed 67 people and that highlighted shortages of air traffic controllers and FAA infrastructure issues.

As Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency team muscle through Washington, D.C., on a mission to cut spending, a Republican state legislator said Illinois could take a cue.

Elon Musk’s DOGE team already has gained access to a database housing personal information on millions of students and parents with federal student loans, according to two people with knowledge of the issue.

Elon Musk, one of President Donald Trump’s most powerful advisers, has orchestrated an unprecedented financial incentive for people to leave their government jobs, promising several months of pay in return for their resignation.

Members of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, eventually did gain access Saturday to the aid agency’s classified information, which includes intelligence reports, the former official said. Musk’s DOGE crew lacked high enough security clearance to access that information, so the two USAID security officials — John Voorhees and deputy Brian McGill — believed themselves legally obligated to deny access.