gotchanewsdaily.com 
CNN
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Eligible federal workers must decide by 11:59 pm ET on Thursday whether to take the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer, which will allow them to leave their jobs but be paid through the end of September.
At least 40,000 employees have already accepted the package, an administration official told CNN Wednesday.
The offer is a sweeping effort by the administration to shrink the size of the federal workforce and presents many employees with a tough decision about their careers and futures.
While an Office of Personnel Management spokesperson described the offer as “a rare, generous opportunity,” it also contains a warning: Those who don’t opt in are at risk of losing their jobs. The administration is planning widespread layoffs soon, two officials have told CNN.
Federal unions, however, have strongly urged members not to accept the package, questioning its legality and the ability of the Trump administration to follow through on its promises.
The American Federation of Government Employees and several other unions filed a lawsuit in US District Court in Massachusetts on Tuesday seeking a temporary restraining order to halt the February 6 deadline. The unions also want to “require the government to articulate a policy that is lawful, rather than an arbitrary, unlawful, short-fused ultimatum which workers may not be able to enforce.”
A hearing on the case is scheduled for 1 pm Thursday.
The 40,000 figure represents about 2% of the roughly 2 million federal employees who received the incentive. The White House has said its target is for between 5% and 10% of employees to resign.
The administration expects a big spike in workers taking the package in the final 24 to 48 hours before the deadline, an OPM spokesperson said. Employees have communicated their acceptances of the offer by responding to OPM’s email outlining the initiative and through direct conversations with their agency managers.
Certain federal workers – including military personnel, those in immigration enforcement, certain national security staffers and National Transportation Safety Board employees – are not eligible. But Central Intelligence Agency staffers are.
OPM is also sweetening the pot for older federal workers. It is offering an early retirement incentive – known as Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, or VERA – to those who meet the eligibility criteria and who opt in to the deferred resignation program, a source familiar with the offer told CNN on Tuesday. Employees must be at least 50 years old with at least 20 years of service or be any age with at least 25 years of service.
The deferred resignation offer was sent to federal employees on January 28 through the administration’s new mass email system. The subject line, “Fork in the Road,” had many similarities to an email that X, then called Twitter, sent to its employees days after Elon Musk took over the company. Musk now leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has been tasked with shrinking the federal workforce as one of its mandates.
The email sparked confusion, concern and consternation among many of the recipients. An FAQ posted on OPM’s website, as well as a subsequent email to workers, sought to clarify that employees who take the offer will not be required to continue working, with rare exceptions, that they will receive full pay even though the federal government is currently only funded through mid-March and that the incentive is valid and legal.
The package is one of several efforts the Trump administration is undertaking to reshape the federal workforce – including reducing its size, replacing career workers with political appointees, wiping away some civil service protections, ending diversity efforts and more.
Federal employee unions have blasted the Trump administration, saying it is looking to hollow out the civil service and replace career workers with political loyalists. They have also argued that the drive to reduce the federal workforce will hurt Americans.
“Make no mistake about it: if the assault that the Trump administration initiated last month continues unchallenged, every member of Congress will soon hear from angry or confused constituents about why their VA claims have not been processed or why their Social Security retirement benefits have not been delivered,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement submitted for the record for the House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing on Wednesday entitled, “Rightsizing Government.”
OPM spokesperson McLaurine Pinover pushed back on the unions’ negative characterization of the offer and claimed union leaders are misguiding federal workers.
“Union leaders and politicians telling federal workers to reject this offer are doing them a serious disservice. This is a rare, generous opportunity—one that was thoroughly vetted and intentionally designed to support employees through restructuring,” Pinover said in a statement Tuesday.
