The Trump administration has offered roughly two million government employees the option to resign and receive a payout, a move that could significantly reduce the size of the federal work force.
The plan immediately drew criticism from Democrats and unions representing federal workers, who said such a vast reduction would create chaos for Americans who rely on government services.
Here is a look at the plan and its possible implications:
What is the plan?
An email sent to employees on Tuesday by the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the federal civilian work force, was titled “Fork in the Road.” It laid out a program for deferred resignations, under which employees of federal agencies are given the option to resign and continue being paid until Sept. 30.
Anyone who accepts the offer will not be expected to continue working, except in rare cases, and would be paid until the end of September, it said. The last date to accept the offer is Feb. 6.
To do so, employees could simply send an email from their government account with the word “resign.”
The O.P.M. published a question-and-answer page about the plan on its website.
Why is the Trump administration doing this?
Slashing the size of the federal government is a priority for Mr. Trump, as it has been for many Republican presidents. After winning the November election, he said that a smaller and more efficient government, with less bureaucracy, would be a “perfect gift to America” for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.
Elon Musk, the tech billionaire Mr. Trump tapped to lead what he called the Department of Government Efficiency, on Tuesday shared a post on X, the social media platform he owns, claiming that 5 to 10 percent of the federal work force was expected to quit, saving the government $100 billion.
Mr. Trump has also described the federal work force as part of a “deep state” that attempted to thwart his priorities during his first term in office. Dramatic action is necessary to combat this group’s power, according to Mr. Trump.
Critics say Mr. Trump’s efforts risk gutting federal agencies whose nonpartisan work offers far-reaching legal, economic and social benefits for Americans.
The payout plan is part of a raft of changes that Mr. Trump envisions for the federal civil service, some of which were detailed in the email sent by the O.P.M. They include ending remote work, changes to performance standards to ensure that all employees are “reliable, loyal, trustworthy,” and the reclassification of some workers to what is known as “at-will status,” in effect making them easier to fire.
Who is eligible?
The O.P.M. said that all federal workers were eligible, with the exception of military personnel, postal workers and employees involved with immigration enforcement or national security. Individual agencies could also exclude specific staff members or positions from the offer, it said.
What happens to those who don’t take the offer?
The letter says that the deferred resignation offer is “completely voluntary,” and that employees who don’t respond to the email will retain their jobs.
But it warns those who choose to remain in their positions that retaining their jobs is not guaranteed.
“At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency but should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity and will be afforded the protections in place for such positions,” the letter said.
Is the offer legal?
Much about the plan remained unclear, including whether the administration can legally offer such a sweeping buyout package without budget authorization from Congress. On the Senate floor Tuesday night, Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, urged federal workers not to resign, and warned that the administration was not legally bound to pay them after they stopped working.
“The president has no authority to make that offer. There’s no budget line item to pay people who are not showing up for work,” Mr. Kaine said. “If you accept that offer and resign, he’ll stiff you.”
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 800,000 federal workers and is the largest union of federal employees, condemned the offer, which its president said would “cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government.”
The White House is already facing mounting legal challenges to the flood of executive orders Mr. Trump has issued in the nine days since he was inaugurated. This week, a federal judge halted a Trump administration order to pause billions of dollars in federal grant and loan programs. Another temporarily blocked Mr. Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship.
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