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Trump administration paid federal employees $9.5 billion not to work in 2025 under DOGE plan
GAO said about 140,000 workers took deferred resignations, and roughly 70% of the leave costs were tied to the program, officials said.
- On Tuesday, the Government Accountability Office reported that federal agencies spent about $6.7 billion on paid administrative leave for the Deferred Resignation Program in 2025, marking a 435% surge from 2023.
- In early 2025, the Trump Administration offered roughly 2 million federal workers full pay to resign by September, aiming to drastically reduce the federal workforce and government spending.
- The Partnership for Public Service found that agencies backfilled more than 20,500 positions left vacant by departures, with many new hires often possessing less experience in the same job categories.
- Sen. Patty Murray criticized the spending as "the most expensive way imaginable to make government worse," while OPM Director Scott Kupor asserted it will ultimately save $20 billion annually.
- Addressing tracking limitations, the GAO recommended that the Office of Personnel Management disclose unresolved data-quality issues and create a separate reporting category for paid leave used in workforce reduction efforts.
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126 Articles
126 Articles
The federal government chose to pay thousands of federal employees who did not show up to work last year in order to obtain their resignations.
·Los Angeles, United States
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The Guam Daily Post+26 Reposted by 26 other sources
Feds spent $6.7B paying buyout takers to stay home, GAO finds
(The Center Square) – The federal government spent an estimated $6.7 billion in 2025 paying employees to stay home under its deferred resignation buyouts, and the agency that ran the program cannot say exactly what it cost.
abc11 Raleigh+7 Reposted by 7 other sources
Federal government paid employees $9.5 billion not to work in 2025: Report
The federal workforce shrunk by roughly 216,000 workers in 2025, according to federal data.
·Durham, United States
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources126
Leaning Left22Leaning Right13Center73Last UpdatedBias Distribution68% Center
Bias Distribution
- 68% of the sources are Center
68% Center
L 20%
C 68%
12%
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