DISA expects 10 percent reduction in workforce due to DOGE-inspired campaign

The Defense Information Systems Agency will see a 10 percent cut to its overall staff as a result of the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to lean out the entire federal workforce, the agency’s leader told lawmakers Wednesday.

The upcoming losses are due to some DISA employees accepting deferred resignation or voluntary early retirement programs, terminations of probationary employees and other workforce reduction initiatives inspired by Elon Musk’s DOGE, according to Lt. Gen. Paul Stanton, head of DISA and the Joint Force Headquarters-Department of Defense Information Network.

DOGE stands for Department of Government Efficiency.

However, the workforce reductions may glean some benefits for the agency, Stanton suggested during a Senate Armed Services cybersecurity subcommittee hearing.

“It’s giving us an opportunity to ruthlessly realign and optimize how we are addressing what is an evolving mission,” he said.

DISA is the Pentagon’s combat support agency responsible for providing IT and communication support to the military, as well as other federal organizations like the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Secret Service. At the moment, DISA employs roughly 20,000 individuals — including around 6,800 DOD civilians and 1,200 active duty military personnel — and more than half are contractors, Stanton said.

Across the federal government, agencies are carrying out mandates from President Donald Trump designed to “maximize efficiency” by massively reducing the civilian workforce and making significant budget cuts. At the Pentagon, leaders are currently planning to slash more than 50,000 of the department’s 900,000-plus civilian personnel through deferred resignations, cutting probationary staff and implementing temporary hiring freezes.

Stanton told lawmakers that DISA is using the downsizing as an opportunity to reorganize its remaining workforce and direct more focus to some of its top priorities. 

“Things like the Multi-Partner Environment and initiatives like DoDNet are driving our workforce to perform roles that they hadn’t previously, and so we are doing a realignment,” he said. 

The agency also plans to request Pentagon approval to do a “surgical rehiring” in order to fill any gaps as a result of the workforce cuts that could negatively impact DISA’s missions.

“We need to hire the right people back into the right positions to then lead us forward,” Stanton said.

Along with cuts to its civilian workforce, the DOD is looking to cancel a number of IT consulting contracts following an April memo from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Components affected by the directive include the Defense Health Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and some of the military services.

Stanton told lawmakers that reviewing IT contracts is already a regular practice within DISA, as it allows the agency to adapt to emerging capabilities and stay aligned with its highly technical workforce.

“In the IT world, as technology changes, we have to continually evaluate whether or not we have the right industry partner performing the right mission, and so we routinely evaluate,” he said. “They’re not consulting contracts. These are individuals that are putting hands on keyboards, that are running fiber optic cables, that are performing server maintenance in a global footprint. And our contracts are healthy and are in a good spot.”