The Trump administration’s unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced last week the closure of 12 federal offices in Oklahoma as a cost-saving measure.
Services for Native Americans in Oklahoma were targeted. The General Services Administration (GSA) announced that Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) offices in Seminole, Watonga, Pawnee, Pawhuska, and Carnegie would be closed, saving $545,648 on leases.
A spokesperson for the Kiowa Tribe told KWTV in Oklahoma City that the BIA office in Carnegie had been empty for years, so cancellation of that lease was largely a formality.
But seven employees at the Seminole BIA office reportedly lost their jobs when that office was shut down last month, its telephone lines disconnected. The Pawnee complex serves 7,200 tribal members across four tribes; departments such as social services, natural resources and real estate are housed there.
Other federal offices in Oklahoma that reportedly will be closed and the lease costs are:
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Oklahoma City (6,401 square feet, $133,605).
• Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Oklahoma City (1,609 square feet, $20,113).
• International Trade Administration, Oklahoma City (1,182 square feet, $22,990).
• Housing and Urban Development, Tulsa (5,682 square feet, $109,426).
• Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Tulsa field office ($745,987).
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Broken Bow (2,325 square feet, leased at a cost of $30,612 annually, according to the GSA).
• Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s office in Muskogee (33,119 square feet, $1,272,005). Those employees reportedly will be relocated to the federal courthouse in Muskogee. Southwest Ledger tried twice to contact individuals at that office, but our messages were not answered. 3 other closures were rescinded “After working closely with DOGE and the Administration, I am thrilled to announce that common sense has prevailed,” Congressman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) declared last Friday.
The National Weather Center in Norman, the Social Security Administration office in Lawton, and the Indian Health Services office in Oklahoma City “will remain operational,” Cole announced. “All three of these places provide vital and valuable services to Oklahomans.”
Perhaps the biggest impact statewide would have been a shutdown of the National Weather Center.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) office in Oklahoma includes the National Severe Storms Laboratory, which researches forecasting, weather warnings and radar technology. Other organizations working in Oklahoma include the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program, the Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations, and others.
The NOAA office in Oklahoma – a state which lies in the heart of “tornado alley” – encompasses 18,743 square feet and its lease cost is $484,325 annually, the GSA reported.
NOAA reportedly laid off an undetermined number of workers at the National Weather Service office in Norman. It was not immediately clear whether they were in fact laid off and, if so, whether or when they will be returning to work.
The 5,000 square-foot Indian Health Service office in Oklahoma City also was spared, Cole said. The lease on that office costs $119,951 per year, the GSA reported.
The Social Security Administration office in Lawton (9,298 square feet, leased at a cost of $223,220 annually) also was targeted for closure, but Cole said it, too, was granted a reprieve.
“We are working with GSA to review our leases and ensure they are used efficiently,” the Social Security Administration wrote in response to a reporter’s question about the Lawton SSA office several days earlier.
“Most of the leases we are not renewing are for small remote hearing sites that are co-located with other federal space. As the majority of our hearings are held virtually, we no longer need as many in-person hearing locations. In fact, in FY24, 20% percent of these offices held no in-person hearings. Other offices are non-public facing, being consolidated into nearby locations, or we had planned to close.
“Social Security continuously monitors and evaluates the use of our office space to maximize efficiency for the American taxpayer. Please contact GSA if you have further questions.”
It was not known last week whether employees in Lawton’s SSA office had been laid off. The SSA reported approximately 7,000 jobs nationwide will be eliminated.
Sean Voskuhl, state director of AARP Oklahoma, said Social Security is “a lifeline” for more than 800,000 Oklahomans. “More than 22% of Oklahomans rely on Social Security as their primary source of retirement income,” the former state lawmaker said. Office closures, total job losses remain unclear Because government and media reports from Washington were being issued last week at such a brisk pace, it was like drinking water from a fire hose.
As an illustration, it was revealed Friday that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed his staff to review and possibly alter national monuments as part of a program to expand U.S. energy production amid mass firings of national park and forest employees.
Conservationists are worried that cherished landscapes will be stripped of protections, but conservatives contend that public lands should remain open to oil drilling and coal mining, among other uses.
Amidst this flurry of reports from the nation’s capital, the question of how many GSA leases ultimately will be canceled was confusing.
For example, U.S. Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) said he, too, like Southwest Ledger, asked, “Where are the U.S. attorneys [in Muskogee] going to be? They have now said, ‘Hey, that’s not actually going to be canceled.’” The Trump administration published on March 4 a list of more than 440 federal properties it had identified to close or sell after deeming them “not core to government operations.” Those included the FBI headquarters and the main Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C., and the new federal building that was constructed after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.
Hours later the administration issued a revised list with 320 entries – none in Washington, D.C. And by the next morning the list was gone entirely. “Non-core property list (Coming soon)” the page read.
“We’re trying to find out fact from fiction,” Lankford told news reporters on March 5.
Oklahoma had 41,867 federal employees last year, records of the U.S. Census Bureau and of the Office of Personnel Management indicated. The number who already have lost their jobs, or may in the future, remained unclear March 5.
Oklahoma’s military installations have not escaped DOGE’s attention.
Fort Sill has lost approximately 100 civilian employees recently, the Ledger was told. Those included approximately 61 who took early retirement, about a dozen layoffs at Reynolds Army Health Clinic, and 34 civilian contractors.
Senator Lankford said on the evening of March 6, “I have been tracking reports of potential layoffs” of up to 1,000 employees at McAlester’s Army Ammunition Plant. “If we were to have a loss of civilian workforce there, we would face serious issues. I’ve been in contact with the White House and Department of Defense to emphasize the important national security mission carried out every day at McAlester. If we remove a thousand civilians there, we won’t be able to operate.”
Last month, Congressman Cole described President Trump’s federal budget proposal as “this one big, beautiful bill” in which “we secure our borders, protect American taxpayers, unleash American energy, and strengthen our military and the country.”
Shortly afterward, a report which gained and sustained traction claimed that 600 civilian employees at Tinker Air Force Base are targeted for dismissal.
Lankford told reporters on March 5 that the 600 figure constituted probationary employees, not a planned reduction in active personnel. “Tinker cannot operate if we lose 600 active civilian employees,” the senator said. “We would not be able to keep aircraft in the air long-term for the Air Force. That is really important for us to be able to have.”
These are RIFs, attorney asserts Patricia Podolec, an Oklahoma City employment attorney, said she has received many calls from Oklahomans seeking help after losing their jobs. She advised former federal employees to file an appeal with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, an impartial judicial body that adjudicates appeals from federal workers who believe their employment rights have been violated.
“This has never happened before, not like this,” Podolec said.
“We’re not faceless bureaucrats,” a Federal Aviation Administration employee who was fired recently told KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City. “We’re your neighbors, friends, and family members. We chose public service because we believe in the mission.”
He was among the employees who said their termination letter claimed they were fired due to “performance” even though they hadn’t worked in their roles long enough to have a performance review.
“The federal government cannot call this a termination based on performance when, in fact, it’s actually a reduction-in-force,” said Sterling DeRamus, an Alabama-based attorney who practices employment law nationwide. “Reduction in Force rules are very explicit.”
New hires subject to termination During a virtual question-and-answer session with Oklahoma journalists on March 5, Lankford was asked his opinion about unelected Elon Musk’s DOGE firing probationary employees and blaming it on their “performance.”
“I don’t agree that you just come in and blanket remove,” the senator said. “But I would tell you, if you work in a corporate entity in America, that’s typical. The executive branch is allowed to remove” probationary employees.
“And so what we’re trying to be able to push on is, OK, I know that’s permissible for you to be able to remove that person,” Lankford continued. “Are you going to rehire for that same position? Is this the right person to be able to remove? Many of those positions we still need. And so we’re already seeing [agency] Secretaries step up and press back on this.”
State politicos back President Oklahoma’s state leaders said they’re monitoring the fallout from federal cuts in Oklahoma but endorse the President’s agenda.
“I want to be completely clear: I support what President Trump is doing and working to reduce the federal deficit,” House Speaker Kyle Hilbert (R-Bristow) said at a recent press conference. “When you’re $35 trillion in debt, we have to take action, and some of that action is going to be painful when you’re talking about trying to rightsize the federal government.”
Hilbert and Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton (R-Tuttle) continue to back Trump’s government waste reduction plan but say they’re keeping tabs on the fallout and preparing to help laid-off Oklahomans as needs arise.
Gov. Kevin Stitt said Oklahomans facing layoffs may need to take one for the team.
“We’ve got to tighten our belt a little bit nationally,” Stitt said in a press conference Wednesday. “I think that’s what you’re seeing. And then you’re seeing a lot of people clamor around to say, ‘Cut everywhere else except for our job.’” Congressman Cole voted Feb. 26 in favor of the House GOP Budget Resolution. “Last November, the American people gave us a very clear mandate. Today, with my ‘yes’ vote on the House Republican budget resolution, I voted to help President Trump deliver on this mandate,” Cole said.
“This budget framework invests in border security, strengthens our national security, roots out waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars, increases domestic energy production, and prevents the American people from possibly seeing the largest tax increase in history. I am proud of my vote today, as it is a crucial step toward fulfilling on the promises we made to the American people.”