White House says some employees were fired by mistake

Lawyers with the Department of Justice are asking a federal judge to weigh in on whether FEMA can suspend a program that pays for states to house migrants once they are released from federal custody.

According to acting FEMA administrator Cameron Hamilton, the federal government plans to suspend funding of the Shelter and Services Program – which provides state funds to house undocumented migrants – based on concerns that money was “going to entities engaged in or facilitating illegal activities.”

Earlier this week, Elon Musk claimed that his team at the Department of Government Efficiency “discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants” and would attempt to claw back the funds.

The DOJ requested the court weigh in by 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

-ABC News' Peter Charalambous

Paul Martin, the inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development, was fired on Tuesday by the White House's Office of Presidential Personnel.

Martin's firing comes a day after his office released a report saying USAID had lost the ability to track and monitor more than $8 billion in unspent aid and risked $500 million in U.S.-grown food aid spoiling as a result of Trump's changes to the agency.

Marc Meyer, assistant inspector general for investigations at USAID, will now take over Martin's role.

"It has been a true honor and pleasure to walk alongside my OIG colleagues around the world as we sought to provide independent and aggressive oversight of USAID programs and personnel," Martin wrote in a Tuesday email to his Office of Inspector General colleagues.

A USAID official told ABC News following Martin's dismissal, "Paul was the most apolitical of apoliticals. He did not deserve this. He had decades of experience as a leader in the IG community and is known for pushing out timely and impactful oversight to make government better, more accountable to taxpayers, and deter fraud and corruption -- whether at DOJ, NASA, or most recently at USAID."

-ABC News' Karen Travers, Ben Siegel and Will Steakin

With snowflakes pummeling the Capitol dome, senators struck a deal Tuesday night to push back a final confirmation vote on Tulsi Gabbard's nomination to serve as director of national intelligence.

The Senate was poised to vote on Gabbard's nomination Tuesday at around midnight, but the vote for Gabbard will now occur at 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

The deal means that senators won't have to slip and slide back to the Capitol at midnight on Tuesday, but it also includes a compromise that allows a final vote on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s confirmation, which is expected later this week, to go on as scheduled, alleviating GOP concerns that pushing Gabbard's vote would have a domino effect that also delayed Kennedy's.

Assuming Kennedy makes it through a test vote on Wednesday that is now scheduled for after the 11 a.m. vote on Gabbard, a final vote on Kennedy's nomination will likely take place around 7 a.m. Thursday morning.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin

The White House released Trump's executive order that uses the Department of Government Efficiency to shrink the federal workforce.

According to the order, the director of the Office of Management and Budget will submit a plan to reduce the size of the federal government's workforce through efficiency improvements and attrition.

"The Plan shall require that each agency hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart, consistent with the plan and any applicable exemptions and details provided for in the Plan," the order said. "This order does not affect the standing freeze on hiring as applied to the Internal Revenue Service."

Each agency head will be tasked to develop a data-driven plan, in consultation with its DOGE team lead, "to ensure new career appointment hires are in highest-need areas."

According to the order, the agency will not fill any vacancies for career appointments that the DOGE team lead assesses should not be filled unless the agency head determines the positions should be filled.

"Agency Heads will undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force (RIFs), consistent with applicable law, and to separate from Federal service temporary employees and reemployed annuitants working in areas that will likely be subject to the RIFs," the order added.

-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie