The buyout plan has been promoted by Elon Musk, the head of President Donald Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.The buyout plan has been promoted by Elon Musk, the head of President Donald Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
The Trump administration’s offer of mass buyouts for government workers was still on hold Monday afternoon, after a federal judge heard arguments about the legality of the unprecedented program.
The “deferred resignation” plan has been paused since Judge George O’Toole Jr. issued a nationwide injunction last Thursday, halting the program just hours before the deadline for workers to accept it.
More than 60,000 federal employees had already taken the buyout offer by that time, NBC News reported.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management shifted that deadline to Monday at 11:59 p.m. ET, while assuring that the program “is NOT being blocked or canceled.”
But at the end of Monday’s hearing in federal court in Boston, it was unclear whether that new deadline would also be scrapped.
O’Toole, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, heard arguments from a handful of employee unions and the Trump administration about whether to block the plan from resuming.
The unions in court filings slammed the buyout plan as an “unlawful ultimatum,” calling it a “sweeping and stunningly arbitrary action to solicit blanket resignations of federal workers.” They are asking O’Toole for a temporary restraining order while they seek additional relief from the courts.
The Trump administration told the judge that the buyouts are a key piece of President Donald Trump‘s efforts to overhaul the federal workforce, and argued that pausing the deadline would have “remarkably disruptive and inequitable repercussions.”
The roughly two million federal employees eligible for the buyout offer have been encouraged to accept it by Elon Musk, the head of Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which aims to slash the size of the federal bureaucracy.
The offer, made in a Jan. 28 email from OPM titled Fork in the Road, gave federal workers the option to immediately resign, and retain pay and benefits until Sept. 30.
To take the offer, they simply had to reply to the email by Feb. 6 with the word “Resign.”
The unprecedented ultimatum quickly raised concerns about whether the Trump administration’s plan was lawful.
Some legal experts said that since Congress has only appropriated funds through March 14, the Trump administration is making payment promises that it cannot guarantee.
Some federal officials have flagged concerns that department secretaries may be able to rescind employees’ deferred resignation packages after they are accepted, leaving those workers without pay. OPM has denied that, pointing to a memo declaring that the government’s assurances are binding.
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.
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