FHFA staff cuts coincide with Freddie Mac’s return to full-time office work

“Some of the roles are protected by statute and are expected to be placed elsewhere, employees said,” according to the report. “DPIE was a new office that FHFA stood up last year to to provide oversight of entities it regulates in areas such as affordable housing, consumer protection and diversity and inclusion.”

The agency’s Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OWMI) was also eliminated. But since it has statutory backing, it was folded into the agency’s existing Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Office, the report explained. But EEO staff were also placed on administrative leave on Tuesday, the report said based on input from two employees.

“The agency has also placed some of its facilities staff on leave, a move an employee briefed on the situation could not explain,” the report stated.

On Wednesday, a portion of the roughly 60 workers in Research and Statistics were brought to the building’s cafeteria and informed they were being placed on administrative leave before being escorted out of the building, the outlet reported.

When reached, an FHFA spokesperson told Government Executive that leaders were “streamlining our agency” and “follow all applicable laws, including OMWI and EEO statutes.” No further reasoning was given for the moves.

FHFA has roughly 866 employees, with 122 housed within its Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

“The recent administrative leave placements, which are expected to lead to layoffs, amount to the agency shedding about 10% of its workforce in the last 24 hours,” the report explained. “An additional 60 employees have accepted the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer.”

On Wednesday, Pulte and Freddie Mac CEO Diana Reid sent a memo to the GSE’s staff, informing them that they will be expected to work in the office five days a week starting in May. Compensation plans at the agency will be reviewed in an effort to “reward key people,” according to a report from Bloomberg.

The memo also reportedly said that Freddie was working on implementing “a number of enhanced amenities,” the report stated.

The move follows Pulte’s appearance on Fox News in which he filmed an Freddie Mac office building, walking an office floor lined with empty chairs and inactive computer monitors.

“We were just in the other building, there was nobody there for miles and miles and miles,” Pulte said in the segment. He walked into a cafeteria area that he said was “completely vacant” save for food service workers.

“You’ve got the staff who make the food here five days a week, but the people who work in this building — or should work in this building — aren’t here five days a week,” Pulte said.

The Trump administration has prioritized a return to the office for the reduced federal workforce. Immediately following his inauguration in January, Trump issued an executive order mandating federal workers to return to the office full time, which was signed in concert with a separate order mandating a freeze on federal hiring.

The GSEs are not federal agencies, and it was believed that the order would not encompass their workers. But the order does apply to workers at the FHFA, the GSEs’ chief regulator.

Even with Pulte now serving as the chair of the board at both GSEs, he does not have operational authority over them. But the co-signing of the memo with Reid suggests a level of influence over the CEOs’ priorities.