GOP Speaker backs Trump buyout plan: ‘Drastic times call for drastic measures’

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday backed the Trump administration’s decision to offer buyouts to federal workers who do not plan to return to the office, telling reporters that “drastic times call for drastic measures.”

The move comes as President Trump has looked to drastically scale back remote work for federal employees. Asked about the buyouts during a press conference at the House GOP’s retreat in south Florida — and if taxpayers are comfortable with scores of federal employees not working but receiving pay through the buyout — Johnson argued that federal employees have been receiving pay but not working for some time.

“They’ve been doing this for four years under the Biden administration,” Johnson said. “They had full license, apparently, to not come to work. And it's a terrible frustration for us and for the American people.”

“This is not like a private company. It should be that way, but it's not,” he added. “The new president can't come in and just walk into an agency and say you're all fired, you know, which, that [would] probably be appropriate in some of these places. But he's not allowed to do that under the law.”

The Speaker went on to say that Trump and his team were “thinking outside the box,” calling the buyouts “the right move.”

“How can we address this problem if we can't fire people for lack of showing up for work? Well, let's give them the option to take a parachute. You know, we don't like that, but it's better than the alternative of having people not work and stay on the payroll,” he added.

In a memo on Tuesday, the White House offered buyouts to 2 million federal employees, guaranteeing them benefits and pay through September if they resign by Feb. 6. The buyouts were made available to all full-time federal employees except military personnel, U.S. Postal Service workers and positions pertaining to immigration enforcement and national security.

The move came after Trump, on his first day back in office, signed a memorandum directing all executive branch departments and agencies to “take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary.”

Trump has emphasized bringing federal workers back into the office, after remote work became more widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Democrats were quick to criticize Trump’s buyout offers. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), for example, called it “bogus.”

“Trump is trying to scam federal workers into quitting their jobs with a bogus ‘buyout’ scheme—just like he’s stiffed contractors and workers his entire career,” he wrote on social platform X.

Johnson on Wednesday estimated that 5 percent to 10 percent of the federal workforce will accept a buyout, calling that prospect “fantastic.”

“I hope they do. But if the estimate is, if 5 to 10 percent leave, you can save $100 billion for taxpayers just with that, that downsizing of the size and scope of government,” he said.

“There will be other creative ideas on how to do this, but I think it's the right move,” he added. “Is it frustrating? Yes. Should it not be that way? Yeah, I wish we didn't have civil service laws that require that kind of action. You know, they need to be reformed. But the president is looking at the reality and the law and he's trying to do everything within his power to make good on the promises and the demands of the American people, and it's right.”

Emily Brooks contributed.

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