The White House is offering federal employees buyouts that would pay them through the end of September if they choose not to commit to the “reformed federal workforce” under President Donald Trump.
The offer of a “deferred resignation” went out in emails Tuesday, an Office of Personnel Management spokesperson confirmed to NOTUS, and employees will have until Feb. 6 to take the buyout.
The buyouts, first reported by Axios, are an uptick in Trump’s reshaping of the workforce that makes up the bulk of federal employees. Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 20 directing all federal employees to return to full-time in-person work.
Employees who accept the offer to resign will be placed on administrative leave until Sept. 30, though the email leaves open the possibility of reassigned work. They would receive full pay and benefits until the end of September, according to the OPM spokesperson. The spokesperson pushed back on the idea that they are “buyouts.” The email to employees refers to the program as “deferred resignation.”
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The email says a “reformed federal workforce will be built around four pillars” — returning to the office; a “performance culture” of “excellence” and high standards; a “streamlined and flexible workforce” after a wider government downsizing; and “enhanced standards of conduct,” including loyalty.
According to a memo from the Office of Personnel Management, the offers are open to all federal employees aside from armed forces military personnel, Postal Service employees, workers in immigration enforcement and national security or “any other positions specifically excluded” by individual agencies.
Employees who accept the offer “should promptly have their duties re-assigned or eliminated” by agency heads, according to the memo.
There are exceptions. An agency head may determine that a worker has to participate in “transitioning job duties.” In such cases, the worker would be placed on leave after the transition was complete.
The memo also directs federal agencies to provide weekly updates to OPM on the number of workers who offer their resignations as part of the program, the number currently in the program and those who change their minds and decide not to resign. Potential retirees are allowed to apply to extend the resignation end-date beyond September.
The buyouts cap off a chaotic two days for the new Trump administration. On Monday, the Office of Management and Budget issued a pause on all federal assistance, a vague order that threw government agencies into confusion as employees tried to decipher what, where and who would be cut off from federal funding.
The buyouts, though, could also come with drawbacks for the new administration.
“You do get people who will take the money and leave early,” Ronald Sanders, who previously led the Federal Salary Council under Trump, told NOTUS recently about potential mass buyouts. “They are the ones with the most marketable skills and/or the best work ethic. And the net result, the net debt, is severe — and I repeat, severe — skills imbalances. And then the only way to fix that is through hiring again.”
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Ben T.N. Mause is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Reese Gorman is a reporter at NOTUS. Anna Kramer contributed reporting.
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