75,000 federal workers take buyout after judge approves Trump’s downsizing plan
Trump's federal worker buyout: pause extended
A federal judge on Monday extended a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration's "Fork in the Road" offer to federal employees. Judge George O’Toole said he's taken the matter under advisement, but there was no timeline on when he would make a decision.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump’s plan to downsize the federal workforce with a deferred resignation program has been cleared by a federal judge on Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. in Boston found a group of labor unions didn't have legal standing to challenge the program, commonly described as a buyout.
Dig deeper:
Trump wants to use financial incentives to encourage government employees to quit. According to the White House, tens of thousands of workers have taken the government up on its offer.
RELATED: Trump’s federal buyout plan stalled as judge extends hold
Protesters rally outside of the Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building headquarters of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management on February 05, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The backstory:
O’Toole Jr. previously paused the deferred resignation program, commonly described as a buyout.
Approximately 75,000 federal employees have accepted the buyout offer allowing them to resign while continuing to receive pay through Sept. 30, according to Office of Personnel Management (OPM) spokesperson McLaurine Pinover.
She stated that the deferred resignation program "provides generous benefits so federal workers can plan for their futures" and confirmed that the program is now closed to new participants.
RELATED: Federal worker buyout deadline: What we know about the deferred resignation program
The deferred resignation program has been spearheaded by Elon Musk, who is serving as Trump’s top adviser for reducing federal spending. Under the plan, employees can stop working and get paid until Sept. 30.
What they're saying:
Labor unions said the plan is illegal. They asked for O'Toole to keep it on hold and prevent the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, from soliciting more workers to sign up.
Elena Goldstein, speaking for the workers, said there were "serious questions" about the plan's rationale and legality.
"OPM seems to making this up as they are going along," she said.
She said the program was an "unprecedented action" on an "unprecedented timeline," and she described it as a pretext to remove workers and replace them with people aligned with the administration.
Eric Hamilton, a Justice Department lawyer, called the plan a "humane off ramp" for federal employees who may have structured their lives around working remotely and have been ordered to return to government buildings.
The Source: The Associated Press contributed to this report. The information in this story also came from various sources, including a federal court ruling by U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. in Boston. This story was reported from Los Angeles.