75,000 federal workers accept resignation buyout

Summary

On January 28, 2025, OPM emailed all 2.3 million federal civilian employees offering a "deferred resignation" - full pay and benefits through September 30, 2025 in exchange for immediate cessation of work. Approximately 75,000 employees accepted by the time the offer closed on February 12, 2025, after a federal judge lifted a temporary pause (the original deadline was February 6).

What happened

The offer, styled "Fork in the Road" after Musk's similar communication at Twitter/X, required employees to either recommit to in-person work and administration priorities or resign with paid administrative leave through end of FY2025. Unions challenged the offer's legality, noting that Congress - not the executive - controls appropriations for salaries. A federal judge declined to block the offer in February 2025. The Partnership for Public Service estimated that deferred resignation payments across all 2025 rounds, taken by an estimated 137,000 employees, cost about $4.5 billion. The Government Accountability Office later estimated that agencies spent about $6.7 billion in 2025 on paid administrative leave tied to the program, covering about 144,000 participants in the agencies it analyzed.

Impact on the United States

Tens of thousands of experienced career civil servants left their positions simultaneously across dozens of agencies, creating immediate institutional knowledge gaps in areas such as benefits administration, regulatory enforcement, and scientific research. Agencies were simultaneously under pressure from DOGE to reduce headcount further, compounding operational stress.

Documented effects

1. Feb 2025Approximately 75,000 federal employees accepted the buyout, per White House figures reported February 2025.[1]
2. Apr 2026In an earlier estimate, deferred resignation payments across all 2025 rounds - taken by an estimated 137,000 employees - cost about $4.5 billion in salary and benefits paid to employees not working, per the Partnership for Public Service (reported by Federal News Network, April 2026).[2]
3. Sep 15, 2026GAO estimated that $6.7 billion of the $9.5 billion agencies spent on paid administrative leave in 2025 was tied to the deferred resignation program, which about 144,312 employees took; paid-leave workdays rose to about 21.6 million in 2025 from about 4.4 million in 2024[4][5]
4. Sep 15, 2026OPM Director Scott Kupor said the program would produce "$40 billion per year savings in taxpayer dollars"; GAO said that without an accurate understanding of paid-leave costs "there is no way to accurately determine to what extent the governmentwide cost-savings goal is being met"[4][5]

Why this is rated significant

Induced ~75,000 experienced workers to leave in the first round (an estimated 137,000 across all 2025 deferred-resignation rounds, with paid-leave costs GAO put at ~$6.7B for 2025), creating real operational gaps across agencies but via voluntary departures.

Corrections & updates [6]

Every change to a fact on this page after publication is logged here, newest first.

1. Sep 29, 2026CorrectedDate

   The offer did not close on February 6. A federal judge paused the program, then let it proceed on February 12, 2025, and OPM closed it that evening; about 75,000 employees had accepted (NBC News). The NBC source was also listed under the wrong headline.[1][3]

2. Sep 29, 2026CorrectedCost estimate

   The $4.5 billion Partnership for Public Service estimate covers all deferred resignation rounds in 2025, taken by an estimated 137,000 employees - not only the ~75,000 who accepted the first "Fork in the Road" offer. The Federal News Network report was published April 9, 2026.[2]

3. Sep 29, 2026UpdatedCost estimate

   Updated: on September 15, 2026 the Government Accountability Office estimated that agencies spent about $6.7 billion in 2025 on paid administrative leave for employees in the deferred resignation program, about 70% of the $9.5 billion spent on paid administrative leave that year, with about 144,312 participants. That official estimate replaces the earlier $4.5 billion estimate from the Partnership for Public Service as the entry's cost figure. GAO also said data problems mean there is no way to accurately determine whether the program's cost-savings goal is being met.[4][5]

4. Sep 29, 2026CorrectedWhat happened

   Removed the statement that a second 'Fork in the Road' round opened in April 2025, which none of the entry's sources (NPR, Federal News Network, GAO) supports.[3][4]

5. Sep 29, 2026ClarifiedSource labels

   Source tier labels brought in line with the site's tier rule (specialist and trade publications are Tier 3; general news organizations are Tier 2): Federal News Network (Tier 2 to 3); Federal News Network (Tier 2 to 3). No claim in the entry changed.

6. Sep 29, 2026UpdatedCost estimate

   GAO (Sept. 15, 2026) estimates the deferred resignation program cost more than $6.7B in 2025 in salary paid to employees on administrative leave, replacing the earlier $4.5B think-tank estimate. The previous $1.5B savings figure and the added future tail were our own unsourced estimates and are removed: GAO says the program's savings cannot be accurately determined, and OPM's claim of $40B a year is not verified.

   Previously

   $3B net ($4.5B cost, $1.5B saved); $4B 10yr; $4.5B 15yr

   Now

   $6.7B net ($6.7B cost, $0 saved); $6.7B 10yr; $6.7B 15yr

Sources [5]