(The Center Square) – Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth changed course Monday when he told the Pentagon’s civilian workforce to respond to an email from the Office of Personnel Management.
When the OPM email first came asking federal workers what they accomplished last week, Hegseth told employees not to respond. President Donald Trump later called the email a great idea and praised Department of Government Efficiency boss Elon Musk. Musk and Trump have since doubled down on the email, although responding to it has become voluntary.
Hegseth over the weekend changed his mind on the email. On Monday, he told civilian employees to respond without mention of sensitive or classified work.
He said after reviewing Department of Defense procedures and talking to officials from the Office of Personnel Management, he wants civilian employees to respond.
“I am directing each member of the Department’s civilian workforce to provide five bullets on what they accomplished in their specific jobs last week to their immediate supervisors,” Hegseth wrote. “All DoD civilians will receive an email outlying the next steps to be taken to comply with this initiative. These reports will be consolidated internally within the Department to comply with the OPM directive.”
In late February, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which serves as the federal government’s human resources office, sent a short email to all federal employees asking them what they accomplished last week. It asked them to respond with five bullets of what they accomplished and to include their supervisor on the reply. Musk, the Tesla boss and White House advisor, said he wanted to know how many employees were actually checking emails and said the bar was low for responses.
After some federal agencies told employees not to respond to the email, Trump said the email was a “great” idea. Musk called the email “a very basic pulse check.”
Justice Department employees were told they don’t need to respond. FBI Director Kash Patel told his employees to “pause any responses” to the OPM email. Other agencies not planning to participate include the State Department, the National Institutes of Health and the National Security Agency.
Hegseth has repeatedly said the he welcomes DOGE to review spending and procedures at the federal government’s largest agency, the Pentagon. DOGE boss Musk has previously said his cost-cutting effort won’t spare the U.S. military.
Shortly after Trump created DOGE, Musk turned his eye to the U.S. Department of Defense.
Musk wrote in a November op-ed that the military was on his list.
“The Pentagon recently failed its seventh consecutive audit, suggesting that the agency’s leadership has little idea how its annual budget of more than $800 billion is spent,” the op-ed said.
The U.S. Department of Defense’s most recent annual audit again resulted in a disclaimer opinion. That means the federal government’s largest agency can’t fully explain its spending. The disclaimer this year was expected, and it’s expected again next year. The Pentagon previously said it will be able to accurately account for its spending by 2027.
Musk has gone even further in his criticism of military spending. He previously called the military’s most expensive ever project, the F-35 stealth fighter, “obsolete.” The Pentagon has about 630 F-35s. It has noted plans to buy about 1,800 more, and it intends to use them through 2088. DOD estimates the F-35 program will cost over $2 trillion to buy, operate, and sustain over its lifetime.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has promised to overhaul the federal workforce through mass layoffs, plans to shutter some federal agencies and efforts to get rid of waste and redundancy.
