5 questions about Trump’s federal employee buyout offers

The Trump administration is offering what amounts to buyouts for federal workers who don’t want to return to the office as part of the president’s breakneck efforts to reshape the government in his second term.

Roughly 2 million government employees started receiving emails this week about “deferred resignation,” raising questions about legal challenges and how the buyouts could shake up Washington.

Here's what to know.

Who’s eligible?

Most federal workers appear to be eligible for the buyouts.

Emails started to go out Tuesday evening to offer the apparent buyouts to all full-time federal employees, with the exceptions of military personnel, U.S. Postal Service workers and positions related to immigration enforcement and national security.

But individual agencies can also exclude specific positions from the offer, leaving unclear how broadly available the offer is.

As it makes sweeping changes to the workforce, the administration is offering employees who don’t want to continue their current role the chance to accept “deferred resignation,” a program to facilitate what the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) called “a dignified, fair departure from the federal government.”

The COVID-19 pandemic shifted many federal employees to remote work, and a December report from OPM found that 43 percent of the federal workforce participated in “routine or situational telework” in fiscal 2023 — though that figure was down from the year prior.

However, 54 percent of federal employees have a job that requires being on-site, according to an Office of Management and Budget report that has since been removed from the White House website. And for those eligible to telework, more than 60 percent of their working hours were spent in office.

The Biden administration had worked to lock in hybrid work protections at some agencies, but President Trump issued a directive on his first day in office that federal employees return to physical offices as part of his plans to reform the workforce. The administration last week gave federal agencies 30 days to implement the change.

And there are other shake-ups on the horizon, such as the overall downsizing of federal agencies, potential consolidation and relocation for some federal offices, and updates to performance standards, according to OPM’s Tuesday note.

How do the buyouts work?

The deferred resignation program kicked off on Jan. 28 and gives eligible federal employees roughly a week to decide whether to opt in, with a Feb. 6 deadline.

Employees who want to take the deal need only respond with the word “Resign” in a reply to the offer email, according to OPM.

The buyout agreement tees up the employee’s resignation for Sep. 30 of this year, which would mean workers get roughly eight months of pay and benefits while being exempt from return-to-office requirements — though questions quickly arose about the legality and mechanics of such a move.

Employees who accept the offer aren’t expected to work during the deferred resignation period, per an OPM FAQ about the offer. Workers also aren't expressly prohibited from seeking outside work during the months before their resignation date, and taking the deal doesn’t prohibit them from finding other federal work in the future.

The letter to employees states that accepting the deferred resignation offer is voluntary — but it also stresses that, for those who choose to remain in their roles, the administration can’t give “full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency.”

Will there be legal challenges?

There will almost certainly be legal challenges to the buyout effort, though who might win a legal fight is unclear.

“The president has a fair amount of authority, but does he have authority to do this? That's the question,” said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law. “And there could be all kinds of people who might be willing to litigate that.”

Members of Congress made clear they saw the move as an effort to usurp their authority on crafting the federal budget, though they were largely split along partisan lines.

Some Republicans have been lining up behind the strategy, viewing it as a means to shrink the size of government.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) suggested Wednesday that legal precedent could be on Trump’s side, saying that “the courts have shown a lot of leeway for the executive on hiring and firing.”

“When Congress has actually tried to limit the executive branch to hire and fire, the courts have actually sided with a much more expansive power for the president to do hiring and firing,” he argued.

But Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said Wednesday that “the question of legality here is very much an open one.”

“Where's he gonna get the money? They don't have a budget for that,” Warner argued.

The buyouts could also violate the Antideficiency Act, which limits the federal government from making payments beyond the scope of their budget.

The government is now running on a short-term continuing resolution that expires March 14. Unless Trump and Congress can agree on a new funding mechanism, the government could shut down this spring.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) warned federal workers against taking the offer in a Senate floor speech Tuesday night.

“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,” he said. “If you accept that offer and resign, he’ll stiff you.”

The offer stemming only from OPM also raises questions about whether they have the power to oversee employment at other agencies, which all have their own personnel divisions.

Agencies are allowed to offer voluntary separation incentive payments up to $25,000, which would likely be easily surpassed by the eight months of salary Trump has promised federal workers who decide to resign. Without budget authorization from Congress, that’s a promise Trump might not have the authority to keep.

Charles Ezell, acting director of OPM, suggested in a Tuesday memo that putting employees who accept the buyouts on paid administrative leave could circumvent that problem, but the actual execution of such a proposal could be complicated and draw legal challenges.

The American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents 800,000 federal and D.C. workers, sharply criticized the buyouts, arguing the offer “should not be viewed as voluntary” amid the flurry of Trump’s workforce changes.

“It is clear that Trump's goal is to turn the federal government into a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to,” the union said in a statement, though they didn’t specifically say they’d challenge the move.

Trump’s blitz of executive actions since he returned to the White House has resulted in a torrent of legal challenges, including to his orders to freeze federal aid and end birthright citizenship. Federal judges temporarily blocked both of those orders.

How could this impact the government's day-to-day functions?

The new administration has made downsizing the federal government one of its top priorities, as made apparent by its plans to end the Department of Education and Trump’s launch of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) commission.

As more than 2 million employees appear eligible for the proposed buyouts, even a small proportion of accepted buyout offers could dramatically slim the federal workforce — though it's unclear at this point how exactly the government's day-to-day processes would be impacted.

“We’re requiring them to show up to work or be terminated,” Trump said of federal workers on Wednesday. “We think a very substantial number of people will not show up to work, and therefore our government will get smaller and more efficient.”

The White House reportedly expects up to 10 percent of federal employees to take the offer, which could mean as many as hundreds of thousands of workers make their exit.

“For some, it may actually be a real incentive to leave,” Tobias said of the deferred resignation offer — but he argued the move may also end up being “counterproductive” to efforts to bolster government efficiency.

“You lose a lot of expertise in that situation, especially if the people are near retirement, or have been around a long time,” he said.

Max Stier, president and CEO of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, called the move “perplexing, of questionable legality and dangerous.”

“Americans rely on federal workers to fly safely, help veterans and seniors access their benefits, keep our food and water safe, protect public health, respond to natural disasters, and maintain the rule of law. Stripping away expert talent through such a non-strategic approach puts all of us at risk in a profound way,” Stier said in a statement shared with The Hill.

How is Elon Musk involved?

The deferred resignation message sent to employees on Tuesday, titled “Fork in the Road,” echoes a 2022 email sent by Tesla CEO Elon Musk to employees at Twitter — which has since been renamed X — following Musk’s takeover.

With the subject line “A Fork in the Road,” Twitter employees were given a deadline to commit to keep working for the tech billionaire as he built “Twitter 2.0.”

Musk is now at the helm of DOGE, an advisory board with the aim of cutting costs at the federal government. DOGE notably posted on the social platform X, which Musk owns, about the buyouts, promising that employees who take the offer “can take the vacation you always wanted, or just watch movies and chill, while receiving your full government pay and benefits.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday sidestepped a question about the extent to which Musk was involved in the plan.

“As you know, President Trump tasked Elon Musk with starting up DOGE. And he already has done that in the first week. They’ve been incredibly productive and efficient already,” Leavitt said, adding that “we welcome Elon Musks’s support on this effort.”

Ella Lee, Rebecca Beitsch and Aris Folley contributed reporting.

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