The Trump administration spent at least $11 billion on a deferred resignation program launched as part of a downsizing effort by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is linked to Elon Musk.
According to The Independent, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management sent a letter to federal employees on January 28, 2025, titled 'fork in the road,' offering them the option to resign and continue receiving pay through September 30, 2025. Employees who accepted the offer continued to receive salaries for months without reporting to work.
A report by the public interest group Public Citizen estimated that about 140,000 federal employees participated in the program. The report projects the total cost as of March 2026 to be between $11.1 billion and $15.1 billion.
Public Citizen researcher Douglas Pasternak commented, 'The Trump administration's efforts to shrink the federal government have been stupid, expensive, and lethally dangerous.'
According to the report, more than 106,000 federal employees had left their positions through the program by September 2025. By the end of December 2025, an additional 24,000 people had joined. The largest personnel loss was at the Department of Defense, which lost over 48,000 employees, followed by the Department of the Treasury with 23,000 losses and the Department of Agriculture with more than 14,500 losses.
Federal courts deemed some firings illegal and ordered the reinstatement of some employees at the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Interior, and Labor. However, many lawsuits continue, and some initial rulings have been overturned by federal appeals courts.
At least ten federal agencies were forced to recall staff deemed essential for carrying out congressionally mandated tasks.
Virginia Senator Tim Kaine stated that Trump did not have the authority to make such an offer, saying, 'There is no separate budget line to pay people who are not working.'
The Public Citizen report described the deferred resignation program as 'inefficiency incarnate,' noting that 'American taxpayers have already paid the price for the administration's questionable actions. The long-term consequences of these actions will be felt for years across virtually every area in the United States.'
