A workers’ board is reinstating – at least temporarily – almost 6,000 fired probationary workers from the Department of Agriculture, according to a newly issued order obtained by CNN.

The decision is a blow to the Trump administration’s effort to drastically and quickly shrink the federal bureaucracy.

The firings of over 5,000 probationary employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture may have been unlawful, and the workers should be reinstated for at least the next 45 days, a federal civil service board ruled Wednesday.

These Agriculture Department employees must be allowed back to their jobs for 45 days, as the Office of Special Counsel continues to investigate the Trump administration’s purge of recently hired, promoted or transferred federal employees.

DOGE suffers biggest loss yet as thousands of probationary USDA employees ordered back to work - 5,600 probationary workers at Department of Agriculture will remain on the job for at least another 45