In March 2025, social media users claimed (archived) that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had rehired 6,000 employees after they were fired in February as part of the Trump administration's plan to reduce the size of the federal government workforce.
The claims spread across Facebook (archived), X (archived), Reddit (archived), Threads (archived) and Bluesky (archived). Snopes readers also emailed us about the claim.
The claims originated from a March 11, 2025, statement from the USDA. The statement said the USDA would "place all terminated probationary employees in pay status," essentially putting them back on the USDA payroll. Probationary employees at USDA agencies faced mass firings in February; an investigation found that 5,900 people were fired.
The March 11 statement followed a March 5 order by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent agency that adjudicates federal employment cases, to "stay," or halt, the firing of probationary employees at the USDA for 45 days. A fired USDA employee brought a case to the MSPB suspecting prohibited personnel practices, resulting in the stay.
The MSPB's order pertained only to the USDA. However, on March 13, U.S. District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California ordered several federal departments, including the USDA, to reinstate employees fired following Office of Personnel Management orders, according to several reputable news sources.
Alsup's order was a significant rejection of the stated "workforce optimization" plan enacted by U.S. President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency. However, the OPM could appeal the order.
Also on March 13, federal agencies faced a deadline to submit "Agency Reorganization Plans" — plans to carry out the large-scale "reductions in force" laid out in a Feb. 11 executive order. These plans were not publicly available at the time of this writing, and it was unclear how they would affect USDA probationary employees.
Court found OPM issued unlawful guidance
According to reporting by NBC, Alsup wrote in his March 13 order that the departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense, Energy, Interior, Agriculture and Treasury must: "offer reinstatement to any and all probationary employees terminated on or about February 13." An earlier order in the case and an investigation by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel found that the OPM ordered mass firings of probationary employees on or around Feb. 13.
The Office of Special Counsel is a federal agency that exists to protect federal workers from prohibited personnel practices, or practices that violate the merit system. The agency is carrying out its own investigation into the firing of probationary employees at USDA — more on this below.
The plaintiffs in the case against the Office of Personnel Management alleged that the OPM unlawfully directed agencies to fire probationary employees. This direction included a memo dated Jan. 20, the day of Trump's inauguration, titled "Guidance on Probationary Periods, Administrative Leave and Details."
The memo asked agencies to "identify all employees on probationary periods, who have served less than a year in a competitive service appointment, or who have served less than two years in an excepted service appointment" and "promptly determine whether those employees should be retained at the agency."
The OPM argued that its memo did not amount to orders. A revised edition of the Jan. 20 memo added a section reading:
Please note that, by this memorandum, OPM is not directing agencies to take any specific performance-based actions regarding probationary employees. Agencies have ultimate decisionmaking authority over, and responsibility for, such personnel actions.
Alsup's March 13 order essentially agreed with the plaintiffs — the OPM had overstepped its authority in ordering agencies to fire probationary employees and thus the fired staff should be reinstated.
Alsup order supported by federal employment tribunal
Prior to Alsup's order, the Merit Systems Protection Board had already found fault with the OPM's methods.
On Feb. 28, the Office of Special Counsel brought the case of "John Doe," a forestry technician who was fired from the USDA while within the probationary period. The OSC investigation found that the USDA carried out firings of approximately 5,900 probationary employees following the OPM's Jan. 20 memo.
The OSC recommended that the MSPB, a quasi-judicial agency that adjudicates cases from the OSC, order a stay for 45 days for the termination of John Doe, as well as any other probationary employees fired by USDA using the same wording as John Doe's termination letter.
The MSPB granted the stay on March 5. The order stated that:
probationary employees whom the agency has terminated since February 13, 2025, pursuant to letters stating, "The [a]gency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the [a]gency would be in the public interest," shall be placed in the positions that they held prior to the probationary terminations.
The OSC investigation found that this email template was used to fire John Doe and the nearly 6,000 other probationary employees through the use of mass termination letters. According to the OSC request to the MSPB:
USDA officials testified that the agency created two templates, one for probationary employees in the competitive service and one for probationary employees in the excepted service, which it used to draft the mass termination letters it sent to Complainant and each of the nearly six thousand other probationary employees it has terminated since February 13, 2025.
The USDA based its mass termination letters on an OPM template seen by the OSC, the investigation found.
The MSPB stay will elapse on April 18. The OSC investigation into the firings continues.