The federal government is paying more than 154,000 people not to work
Source: Washington Post
July 31, 2025 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
The government is paying more than 154,000 federal employees not to work as part of the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program, according to two administration officials.
The number, which has not been previously reported, accounts for workers at dozens of agencies who took offers from the government as of June to get paid through Sept. 30 — the end of the fiscal year — or the end of 2025 and then voluntarily leave government, significantly reducing the size of several major agencies, according to two Office of Personnel Management officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose details of the administration’s plans to scale down government.
The buyouts have rapidly sped up the process of slashing the federal workforce at an unprecedented rate, the officials said. But critics have argued the administration’s tactics of using buyouts and administrative leave have been wasteful because the public is paying tens of thousands of employees not to work for months.
Officials could not say how much the government is spending on salaries for employees who are resigning. The timing of buyouts has varied by agency, employees remain on their agencies’ payrolls as long as they are on leave and some workers got additional payments through other retirement programs, as well. The officials also could not say how much they expect the cuts will save in payroll costs in the long term.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/31/federal-workers-doge-buyout-paid/
Waste. Fraud. Abuse. AND a violation of both the "Antideficiency Act" and the "Budget Control and Impoundment Act".
= new reply since forum marked as read
The Gingrich one was the most significant at that time (and thankfully my agency didn't get impacted).
Here is a different set of unions suit (again, these are the "early ones" - they have come back around with later suits) - AFGE, et al - https://www.afge.org/publication/trump-administration-fork-directive-ultimatum-unlawful-as-written-unions-urge-court-to-find/
The “Fork Directive” is the latest attempt by the Trump-Vance administration to implement Project 2025’s dangerous plans to remove career public service workers and replace them with partisan loyalists. The “Fork Directive” amounts to a clear ultimatum to a sweeping number of federal employees: resign now or face the possibility of job loss without compensation in the near future. Even so, as employees face threats from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that failure to resign may result in being fired without compensation, workers are being offered a package that violates the law. For example, it is wholly unclear how the government can promise to pay workers for a deferred resignation when the funds to do so have not been appropriated.
The complaint further describes FAQs made available promoting the “Fork Directive” that are misleading. For example, despite assertions that workers would be free to accept other jobs after resigning, longstanding federal ethics regulations place numerous restrictions on the outside employment opportunities that a current federal worker can accept.
(snip)
Everything they did was backasswards and I certainly remember the 1990s furloughs/RIFs/buyouts under Clinton and the legislation that it took to bring it about as there is a "seniority" aspect involved too that was ignored by DOGE and their minions.
And I will agree to disagree although I had to take all kinds of ridiculous training and get read the riot act on this stuff.
Oh my gosh that makes so much sense!
It's always been a dream of mine. 