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.
41 Articles
41 Articles
Trump admin paid $9.5 billion to federal workers to stay home in 2025: Report
US News: A new GAO report reveals that the Trump administration allocated $9.5 billion to pay federal employees on administrative leave in 2025, predominantly through a deferred resignation program, raising concerns about the efficiency of workforce reductions.
DOGE spent $6.7 billion paying federal workers not to work
GAO estimates federal agencies spent $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave in 2025, including about $6.7 billion tied to DOGE's deferred resignation program. Good work, Elon. DOGE's celebrated plan to shrink the US government involved telling federal employees to stop working immediately, and they could keep collecting their salaries for months before resigning. — Read the rest
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GAO Finds Deferred Resignation Program Drove $6.7 Billion in Paid Leave Costs
Federal agencies spent an estimated $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave in 2025, with more than $6.7 billion tied to the Trump administration’s deferred resignation ... The post GAO Finds Deferred Resignation Program Drove $6.7 Billion in Paid Leave Costs first appeared on [your]NEWS.
DOGE's 'Fork in the road' buyouts cost government nearly $7B
The Trump administration paid nearly $7 billion as part of an effort to reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy, according to a watchdog report released Tuesday. The Government Accountability Office said the government spent $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave, including $6.7 billion spent on the Department of Government Efficiency’s initiative to incentivize federal […]
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