By David Shepardson and Karen Freifeld
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – More than 20,000 federal employees have informed the U.S. government they are willing to quit their posts under an incentive program that has a Thursday deadline, a U.S. official told Reuters on Tuesday.
The White House last week offered 2 million civilian full-time federal workers an opportunity to stop working this week and receive pay and benefits through Sept. 30 as the Trump administration seeks to slash the size of the U.S. government. Some Democrats say the offer is not legal.
The White House said on Sunday it was exempting public safety employees, including air traffic controllers, from the “deferred resignation program.”
The number of deferred resignations is rapidly growing, the official said, and the largest spike is expected to come 24 to 48 hours before Thursday’s deadline.
In the 12 months ending in October 2023, 115,900 people left federal government service, a September 2024 report found, adding that 42% of federal workers were older than 50.
The White House Office of Personnel Management defended the legality of the program in a memo to agencies on Tuesday.
The “deferred resignation program” has undergone extensive legal review and is completely voluntary, the U.S. official said, adding it was an effort to help employees financially as federal agencies adjust their workforce.
President Donald Trump has embarked on a massive makeover of the U.S. government, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.
The Trump administration urged government workers last week to quit their “lower productivity jobs” and seek work in the private sector, and to take a vacation to a “dream destination,” sparking outrage among civil servants.
The program would allow them to remain on the payroll through Sept. 30 but without having to work in person and possibly having their duties reduced or eliminated in the meantime, according to a memo sent to workers.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld and David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Cynthia Osterman and Sandra Maler)
