五角大楼正试图通过自愿裁员来减少5万至6万名文职人员，尽管尚不清楚它是否能够在不强制削减文职人员的情况下实现这一目标。
一位高级国防官员周二对记者说，国防部目前正在实施一项自愿程序，以实现其将87.8万名文职雇员削减5%至8%的目标，这一数字相当于5万至6万名雇员。
“这个数字听起来很高，但我会把重点放在这个百分比上，5%到8%的削减并不是一个剧烈的数字，”这位官员说，他补充说，国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯(Pete Hegseth)对这个百分比“有信心在不负面影响战备的情况下完成，以确保我们的资源分配在正确的方向上。”
自愿过程包括通过所谓的“自愿辞职”选择辞职的员工三岔路口「冻结聘用新员工取代离职员工，以及解雇五千四百名在现职工作不足一至两年的试用员工。
大约21，000名文职雇员的自愿辞职请求在五角大楼所谓的延期辞职计划(DRP)下获得批准，该计划允许雇员辞职，但在9月30日结束的财年结束前继续领取工资。
这位高级国防官员拒绝透露总共有多少文职雇员试图选择加入推迟辞职计划。
ABC新闻已经以前报告过根据特朗普政府的倡议，3.1万名文职雇员提出辞职，其中一些请求被拒绝。
招聘冻结意味着，随着其他员工的离开，每月平均6000名加入五角大楼的员工也不会进入劳动力市场。
国防部也已经开始终止5400名试用的文职雇员——现在已经被临时限制令暂停是由联邦法官强加的。
这位官员强调，这5400名试用员工并不是“盲目地根据他们被雇佣的时间”而被选择解雇的该部门共有54，000名试用员工，试用员工是指在当前工作岗位上工作不到一年或两年的员工。
相反，该官员表示，这5400名员工“被记录为在工作职能中表现明显不佳或有不当行为。”尚不清楚是否所有5400名被解雇的试用期员工都属于这一类。
“某人是试用员工的事实并不直接意味着他们将被免职，”该官员表示。
该官员拒绝提供如果自愿努力没有达到减少5万至6万名员工的目标，五角大楼可能采取的“减少武力”步骤。
“我不会超过部长的，”这位官员说。“这将是国防部长的特权，他可以指定如何以及何时使用他可以使用的任何其他工具来实现既定的减排目标。”
有人猜测，军队成员可能会被要求填补一些因招聘冻结而空出或不会填补的文职职位，但该官员表示，目标是不影响军事准备。
“我们有信心在不损害我们继续执行任务的能力的情况下吸收这些人员，因此我们可以确信，我们不需要担心对军警部队造成任何影响，”这名官员说。
这位官员承认，一些退伍军人将在离开国防部的文职人员中，但没有提供估计有多少人。
“其中一些人将是以前服过兵役的退伍军人，在我们计划裁员时，我们肯定会再次逐案考虑，”这位官员说。“退伍军人必须提供如此多的关键技能和经验，当我们考虑谁对核心任务职能做出贡献以及谁应该被保留时，这是分析的一部分。”
Pentagon aims to cut 50,000 to 60,000 civilians
The Pentagon is attempting to reduce the size of its civilian workforce by between 50,000 to 60,000 employees through voluntary workforce reductions, though it remains unclear if it will be able to meet that goal without possibly having to carry out forced reductions in the civilian workforce.
The Defense Department is currently carrying out a voluntary process to reach its goal of a 5% to 8% reduction of its 878,000 civilian employees -- a number that equates to 50,000 to 60,000 employees, a senior defense official told reporters on Tuesday.
"The number sounds high, but I would focus on the percentage, a 5% to 8% reduction is not a drastic one," said the official, who added that the percentage is one that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth "is confident can be done without negatively impacting readiness in order to make sure that our resources are allocated in the right direction."
The voluntary process includes employees who have chosen to resign through what is known as the "Fork in the Road," a freeze on hiring new employees to replace those who are departing and the dismissal of 5,400 probationary employees who have less than one or two years' experience in their current jobs.
About 21,000 civilian employees have had their voluntary resignation requests approved under what the Pentagon calls the Deferred Resignation Program (DRP), which allows employees to resign but continue to be paid through the end of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
The senior defense official declined to disclose how many civilian employees in total had sought to opt into the Deferred Resignation Program.
ABC News haspreviously reportedthat 31,000 civilian employees had offered to resign under the Trump administration initiative with some of the requests being denied.
The hiring freeze means that the average 6,000 employees who join the Pentagon every month are also not coming into the workforce as other employees leave.
The Defense Department had also begun the termination of 5,400 probationary civilian employees -- which has now beenpaused by a temporary restraining orderimposed by a federal judge.
The official stressed that the 5,400 probationary employees had not been selected for termination "blindly based on the time they had been hired." The Department has 54,000 total probationary employees, a term that refers to employees who have less than one or two years' experience in their current jobs.
Instead, the official said the 5,400 were employees who "were documented as significantly underperforming in their job functions and or had misconduct on the record." It is unclear if all of the 5,400 probationary employees targeted for termination fell into those categories.
"The fact that someone was a probationary employee did not directly mean that they were going to be subject to removal," said the official.
The official declined to offer what "reduction in force" steps the Pentagon might undertake should the voluntary efforts not reach the goal of reducing the workforce by 50,000 to 60,000 employees.
"I won't get ahead of the Secretary," the official said. "It'll be the Secretary's prerogative to designate how and when he might use any of the other tools that would be available to him to achieve the stated reduction targets."
There has been speculation that military service members may be asked to fill in for some of the civilian jobs that are being vacated or will not be filled by the hiring freeze, but the official said the goal is not to affect military readiness.
"We are confident we could absorb those removals without detriment to our ability to continue the mission, and so that's how we can be confident that we don't need to worry about any resulting impact on the uniformed force," the official said.
The official acknowledged that some military veterans would be among the civilians who would be leaving the department, but did not provide an estimate of how many.
"Some of those people will be veterans that served in uniform previously, we're certainly again looking at case by case as we plan workforce reduction," said the official. "There are so many critical skills and experience that veterans have to offer, and that's part of the analysis when we consider who is contributing to the core mission functions and who should be retained."
