Layoffs Likely As Federal Workers Reject Trump’s Buyout Offer

Like Jordan Belfort in that one scene from The Wolf of Wall Street, most US public servants are not freakin’ leaving. Today is the deadline for ~2.3 million federal workers to accept resignation deals from President Donald Trump’s administration or risk being laid off—but barely anyone is budging.

ICYMI: Government employees got an email from the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) last week titled “Fork in the Road”—a recycled subject line from Elon Musk’s Twitter layoffs email in 2022—offering them paid administrative leave and benefits through the end of September if they resigned from their jobs by Feb. 6 (today). This week, Trump’s administration expanded its offer to employees at the CIA, NSA, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as part of its plan to reduce the government workforce.

Only 20,000 workers—less than 1% of the federal workforce—had accepted the buyout as of Tuesday, before the entire CIA was given the offer (Trump’s goal was 5% to 10%). The White House expects a spike in the hours just before tonight’s deadline.

Lawyers question the buyout’s legality

Three unions that collectively represent 800,000+ federal workers filed a lawsuit on Tuesday aimed at delaying today’s deadline by at least 60 days so the Trump administration can provide “adequate justification” for the offer and clarify details that have caused some confusion. Although the administration insists the offer is legal:

• It appears to violate a law that limits federal administrative leave to 10 days per employee, Axios noted.
• Another law bars agencies from spending more than what Congress gives them. Federal agencies aren’t guaranteed funding after March 14, the deadline for the government to pass a new budget or shut down.

Zoom out: The buyouts are part of Trump’s efforts to cut government spending via Musk’s DOGE team. In compliance with this goal, the CIA sent the White House an unclassified email listing its past two years of new hires, which former officials fear could leak if accessed by Musk’s squadron of 19-to-24-year-old software engineers.—ML