WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Tuesday cut more than 10% of the workforce at the National Science Foundation, an independent agency that supports cutting-edge scientific research, adding to the widespread purge of federal workers with probationary status that began last week.

Michael England, a spokesperson for the foundation, said in a statement that the agency fired 168 probationary employees, and that it “had approximately 1,450 career employees prior to the cuts.”

“We thank these employees for their service to NSF and their contributions to advance the agency mission,” he said.

The Trump administration ordered agencies last week to terminate most of an estimated 200,000 government workers on probation, and mass firings began to cascade through the government, with some departments laying off more than 1,000 employees at a time. Other agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, are still preparing to lay off thousands more employees this week.

— The New York Times