Federal Agencies Re-Hiring After DOGE Cuts: The Boomerang

Last Updated: March 31, 2026 Reading Time: 9 min

Within 24 hours of firing 350 nuclear security workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Trump administration reversed course and rehired 322 of them. That was February 14, 2025. It was the fastest documented boomerang of the DOGE era, but far from the last.

By March 2026, approximately 25,000 fired federal workers had been rehired as "essential" to agency operations, according to Brookings Institution senior fellow Elaine Kamarck. Courts ordered reinstatements at 18 agencies covering more than 24,000 workers. Elon Musk told an interviewer DOGE was only "somewhat successful" and he would "not do it again."

If you are one of those workers, or if you are still employed and watching from the sidelines, here is what actually happened, which agencies are rehiring, what the process cost, and what it means for your FERS, TSP, and FEHB.

Key Takeaways

• 25,000 fired federal workers were rehired as agencies discovered they could not perform core functions without them
• Courts ordered reinstatement across 18 agencies covering 24,000+ workers, including 7,613 at Treasury (mostly IRS) and 5,714 at USDA
• Court-ordered reinstatements require full back pay and continuous FEHB, not TCC at your own cost, though some agencies violated this
• The period of improper removal counts as creditable FERS service when back pay is awarded, so the gap disappears from your Service Computation Date
• Contractor backfill cost 1.83x the federal employee rate on average, and nearly 3x for DoD roles, meaning the "savings" from mass firings were largely offset by what it cost to replace the people who left

The Boomerang Pattern: Who Got Fired and Who Came Back

The DOGE firing wave moved fast and without much agency-level review. OPM sent mass termination emails, agencies pushed out probationary workers, and deferred resignation offers gave employees little time to decide. What followed surprised even some administration officials: agencies could not do their jobs.

The NNSA nuclear case was the most dramatic. Acting director Teresa Robbins reversed 322 of 350 firings within 24 hours after recognizing that Pantex nuclear weapons facility staff were among those let go. The acting Chief of Defense Nuclear Safety was still forced out despite the reversal.

At USDA, bird flu response officials were fired on February 19, 2025. Within days, the administration acknowledged the firing was a mistake and launched an emergency rehiring effort. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins called the original effort "extremely aggressive" and admitted "there have been mistakes made."

The IRS fired approximately 7,315 probationary workers during peak tax filing season. The agency was then ordered to return 7,000 of them to work by April 14, 2025, the day before the tax filing deadline.

By mid-2025, the Washington Post and CNN were reporting that agencies "can't perform basic functions." September brought what reporters described as a second wave: the administration rehired "hundreds" more workers, including some who had taken voluntary buyouts. GSA rehired about 285 of the 600-700 Public Building Service employees it had initially cut.

Which Agencies Are Rehiring

Here is where the rehiring stood as of early 2026, based on court filings, GAO reports, and congressional testimony.

Agency	Fired	Rehired/Reinstated	Method
Treasury (incl. IRS)	7,315+	7,613 ordered	Court order (D. Md.)
USDA	5,714	5,600-5,900	MSPB order
HHS	3,248+	3,248 ordered	Court order
Interior	1,712+	1,712 ordered	Court order
VA	40,000 total	1,683 ordered	Court order
National Weather Service	~600	~190 onboarded	Agency decision
GSA	600-700	~285 (~40%)	Agency decision
Department of Transportation	775	775 ordered	Court order
Commerce	791	791 ordered	Court order
EPA	419	419 ordered	Court order
NNSA (Energy)	350	322	Agency reversal (24 hrs)
FAA	400	Partial	Agency hiring push

VA is the most complicated case. The department lost 40,000 employees in FY2025, with 88% of losses in health care, including 1,000 physicians, 1,500 patient schedulers, and 3,000 registered nurses. A Senate Veterans Committee report called it "Cuts, Cover-Ups, and Chaos." VA hired the fewest new employees since 2005, and clinicians are rescinding job applications due to what they describe as agency instability.

NWS is still actively filling positions. After losing about 600 meteorologists, hydrologists, and radar technicians, the National Weather Service received approval for 450 replacement positions in August 2025. About 190 were onboarded by fall 2025. The hiring push came after Democratic lawmakers formally questioned NWS leadership about weather safety gaps ahead of hurricane season.

The overall picture as of March 2026: Net federal headcount is down approximately 9% from pre-DOGE levels, meaning roughly 235,000 positions are gone on net (260,000 out, 25,000 back). Whether those positions should have been eliminated is a policy argument. The financial and operational cost of how it happened is not.

What It Costs to Fire and Rehire

DOGE's stated savings figure is approximately $215 billion. That number is heavily disputed. The cost side tells a different story.

The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights case was documented by GAO. After about half of OCR staff were fired in March 2025, the agency paid $18 million to $24 million in salaries and benefits to non-working reinstated staff between March and September 2025. Then another $10.5 million to $14 million from September to December 2025. Total documented cost for one sub-office of one agency: $28.5 million to $38 million, paid for work that was not performed.

When agencies turned to contractors rather than wait for court-ordered reinstatements, the math got worse. The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) documented that contractor billing rates average 1.83 times total federal employee compensation. For DoD-specific roles, the multiple is closer to 3x. IT contractors billed at roughly $268,653 per year for work that federal IT workers did for about $136,456 in total compensation.

A DOGE staffer named Nate Cavanaugh, deposed in March 2026, testified that DOGE "did not reduce the federal deficit." Federal spending actually increased by approximately $376 billion, about 6%, through August 2025 compared to the prior year. The federal deficit grew nearly $2 trillion over the same period.

Elon Musk's own assessment: DOGE was only "somewhat successful."

What Happens to Your Benefits If You're Rehired

The financial picture for rehired federal employees depends almost entirely on why you left.

If You Were Reinstated by Court Order (Improper Removal)

Back pay is required by law under 5 U.S.C. 5596, the Back Pay Act. It covers the full period from improper separation at the rate you would have received. HUD violated this after the March 2025 court orders, offering TCC instead of restored FEHB coverage. That litigation is ongoing.

FEHB must be restored as continuous. You are not required to pay TCC rates during the gap. If your agency offered TCC-only coverage despite a court-ordered reinstatement, that offer was likely illegal.

Sick leave is restored to the balance at the time of your removal.

Annual leave is restored. Your accrual rate is based on your prior years of service.

TSP: The 1% FERS automatic contribution resumes immediately on reinstatement. Agency matching resumes when you elect your contribution. The gap period in your TSP matching is not recoverable.

FERS creditable service: The period of improper removal counts as creditable service when back pay is awarded. The break disappears from your Service Computation Date. For calculating your pension, it is as if the gap never happened.

Probationary period: Time improperly excluded counts toward completing your probationary period. No restart required.

If You Left Voluntarily (VERA, Deferred Resignation, Fork in the Road)

The rules are different if you chose to leave.

A break in service matters. If you separated voluntarily and are being rehired, it is treated as a new appointment unless you were rehired within 3 calendar days, in which case there is no Service Computation Date change.

Sick leave is restored if you are rehired into federal service. Annual leave accrual category is restored based on your prior years of service.

Your TSP account stays yours. You have 60 days from reemployment to re-elect contributions. Agency automatic 1% resumes immediately.

FERS: If you withdrew your retirement contributions during the gap, you can redeposit with interest to buy back that service credit. If you did not withdraw, your prior service stays on the books.

VERA/VSIP reemployment: If you accepted a buyout (VSIP), reemployment within 5 years generally requires repaying the buyout amount. If you took early retirement (VERA), reemployed annuitant rules apply. Your salary may be offset by your annuity, reducing your take-home pay. Run the numbers before saying yes to any re-employment offer.

Court-Ordered Reinstatements: What the Courts Said

Two federal judges issued the orders that drove the bulk of reinstatements.

March 13, 2025 (N.D. California, Judge William Alsup): Ordered immediate reinstatement at VA, USDA, Interior, Energy, Defense, and Treasury. Judge Alsup found the firings were "based on a lie," specifically that OPM had no legal authority to direct mass agency terminations. The case was filed by nonprofit organizations including AFGE and AFSCME affiliates.

March 17-18, 2025 (D. Maryland, Judge James Bredar): Issued a temporary restraining order covering 18 agencies and more than 24,000 workers. Reinstatement ordered retroactively.

March 2025 (MSPB): The Merit Systems Protection Board ordered reinstatement of 5,600 to 5,900 USDA workers, with authority to award back pay.

April 8, 2025 (Supreme Court): Granted the Trump administration a stay of the N.D. California order, finding the nonprofit plaintiffs lacked standing to sue. The Court did not rule on whether the firings were actually lawful.

April 9, 2025 (4th Circuit): Ruled that agencies can fire probationary employees. That ruling cut off most of the remaining legal protection for workers seeking permanent reinstatement.

The practical result: most court-ordered reinstated workers were placed on paid administrative leave rather than returned to active duties. They received pay and benefits but were not working. That is where the Education Department's $38 million cost figure came from.

Contractors vs. Direct Rehire: The Agency Calculus

When agencies needed functions covered immediately and could not wait for court processes, some turned to contractors. The jobs that could not be contracted out reveal what the federal workforce actually does.

Roles agencies had to hire back directly:

• IRS revenue agents (tax law requires career civil servants)
• Immigration judges at EOIR (Article II judicial function)
• NWS meteorologists and hydrologists (operational certification required)
• NNSA nuclear security staff (classified environment)
• FBI, ATF, and DEA agents (law enforcement)

Roles where contractors were more likely used:

• IT and data systems at GSA and Treasury
• Consulting and analysis functions
• Facilities management

VA health care is the most complex case. Nursing and physician roles cannot be backfilled by contractors in the standard sense. VA relied on community care referrals and locum or travel staff, which cost substantially more per hour than career VA employees. The Senate Veterans Committee documented this in its "Cuts, Cover-Ups, and Chaos" report.

For the positions where contractor backfill was used, the POGO benchmark of 1.83x applies. For a typical GS-11 position with about $120,000 in total compensation including benefits, the contractor equivalent billing runs around $220,000 per year. Multiply that across 25,000 essential positions backfilled for even six months and you are looking at roughly $1.25 billion in excess costs beyond what those federal employees would have cost to retain.

What This Means for Current Federal Employees

If you are still employed and watching this play out, here is the honest picture.

The cuts are not fully reversed. Net federal headcount is down about 9%. The boomerang brought back 25,000 people, but 235,000 net positions are still gone. Recruitment pipelines are damaged and VA hired the fewest new employees since 2005. That institutional knowledge loss, according to post-World War II precedents, can take 5 to 10 years to rebuild.

If your agency is actively rehiring, you may have negotiating leverage. NWS, FAA, and VA are all trying to recruit people with specific skills. Meteorologists, cybersecurity specialists, aviation safety staff, and VA clinicians are on OPM's stated priority list as of early 2026. If you left voluntarily and have these skills, the boomerang may apply to you.

If you are still employed, your RIF standing matters more than ever. With about 9% of the workforce gone and agency missions still needing to be performed, remaining employees are often covering more ground. That workload reality makes your FERS, FEHB, and TSP benefits worth modeling carefully. Staying may be more valuable than it looks from the outside.

Check your VERA/VSIP math before accepting any offer. Agencies have rehired people within months of letting them go. If you accept a buyout and are then rehired within 5 years, you will owe the money back. Run the numbers before signing anything.

Calculate Your Numbers

Your specific financial picture depends on your years of service, salary, and retirement timeline.

Use our free Severance Pay Calculator to estimate what you would receive if separated through a RIF, or to verify what you should have received if you were improperly terminated.

Use the FERS Retirement Calculator to see how a gap in federal service affects your pension calculation and whether buying back that service through a redeposit is worth it.

If you received a VERA or VSIP offer and are weighing whether to take it, use the VERA/VSIP Decision Calculator to model the reemployed annuitant offset and the 5-year repayment risk.

Frequently Asked Questions

Were fired federal employees able to keep their health insurance during the gap?

Not automatically. FEHB coverage ends the last day of the pay period covering termination. Employees had 31 days of temporary coverage, then could elect TCC for up to 18 months at the full combined premium plus a 2% administrative fee. Court-ordered reinstated employees were entitled to have FEHB restored as continuous, not as TCC. Some agencies, including HUD, violated this requirement. If you were reinstated by court order and your agency offered only TCC, that offer likely violated Title 5.

Do fired and rehired employees get back pay for the time they were out?

For court-ordered reinstatements involving improper removal, yes. The Back Pay Act (5 U.S.C. 5596) requires full back pay for the period of improper separation. Compliance has been uneven. HUD denied back pay in violation of the law. For voluntary departures, including VERA, the Fork in the Road, and deferred resignation, back pay does not apply.

If my agency used contractors to cover my job while I was gone, can I still get my position back?

Reinstatement rights under 5 U.S.C. 3308 entitle eligible former employees to noncompetitive reappointment. However, if your specific position was abolished rather than just filled by a contractor, the right to that exact position may not exist. You would be eligible for a comparable position or placement under Priority Placement Programs. Consult an employment attorney if your position was restructured or eliminated.

Is the boomerang rehiring still happening in 2026?

Yes, but the character has changed. The initial wave in spring 2025 was chaotic and court-driven. By fall 2025 and into 2026, agencies are making deliberate, mission-driven decisions. OPM confirmed it is actively seeking to rehire employees with cybersecurity, aviation safety, weather forecasting, and medical skills. The overall federal headcount remains down approximately 9%, but targeted rehiring in critical skill areas is ongoing.

Related Resources

• Federal Workforce Outlook 2026: Context on the full scale of 2025 workforce reductions and what to expect going forward
• MDR vs. RIF vs. VERA/VSIP Guide (DoD): How different separation types work and their benefits implications
• Government Shutdown Guide 2026: What happens to pay and benefits during a funding lapse
• RIF Survival Guide 2026: Full guide to retention standing, bump and retreat rights, and severance calculations
• VERA/VSIP Guide 2026: How to evaluate a buyout offer before accepting

Sources

• PBS NewsHour / Brookings Institution (Elaine Kamarck): 25,000 workers rehired
• GAO Report GAO-26-108320: Education Department OCR Costs
• NPR: Federal spending up $376 billion through August 2025
• POGO: Bad Business, contractor cost comparison
• CBS News: 24,000+ workers ordered reinstated across 18 agencies
• Senate Veterans Committee: "Cuts, Cover-Ups, and Chaos"
• GovExec: VA loses 40,000 employees in FY2025
• Fortune: DOGE deposition, Nate Cavanaugh testimony
• OPM: Title 5, Back Pay Act, 5 U.S.C. 5596