Feds Paid $9.5 Billion Not to Work
Feds Paid $9.5 Billion Not to Work
The News
Federal agencies spent $9.5 billion paying employees who were not working in 2025, the Government Accountability Office found in a report released Tuesday — a sixfold increase in paid administrative leave costs since 2023.
About $6.7 billion of that went to the deferred resignation program, the "Fork in the Road" buyout push run under the Department of Government Efficiency, which paid workers their full salary through September if they agreed to quit.
The nonpartisan watchdog also found use of paid administrative leave across the federal government rose 435% over the first two years of the Trump administration.
The Numbers
GAO analyzed payroll data from 76 agencies covering roughly 95% of the federal civilian workforce. Federal data shows 139,963 employees left through the deferred resignation program. The civilian workforce has shrunk about 12% since President Trump's second term began.
Timeline
The administration launches the deferred resignation program, offering roughly 2 million federal workers full pay through September if they resigned within nine days.
Salary costs attributable to paid leave jump sixfold, with use of paid administrative leave up 435%, according to GAO.
A federal judge rules that a plan to cut FEMA staffing by 50% was unlawful, as litigation over agency-level layoff plans continues.
GAO releases its estimate: $9.5 billion in paid administrative leave in 2025, $6.7 billion of it tied to deferred resignations.
Reactions
The Office of Personnel Management defended the spending as a one-time cost that pays for itself. OPM Director Scott Kupor said the program will save $20 billion a year, dwarfing the $6.7 billion outlay. An OPM spokesman told one outlet the workforce reduction delivers a "400% return on investment" for taxpayers.
The White House has described the roughly $7 billion deferred resignation expense as "one-time" spending that saves about $40 billion annually, the Washington Examiner reported.
Democrats called it waste dressed up as reform. "Trump spent billions to push out experienced and badly needed experts across government," a senior Democrat said, according to The Independent.
Coverage split along the same line: right-leaning outlets led with the administration's savings math, while left-leaning outlets framed the $9.5 billion as money torched by an operation sold as a hunt for waste, fraud and abuse.
What's Next
GAO said OPM cannot verify whether the program's long-term savings goals are being met because of data limitations — leaving the administration's $20 billion-a-year claim unaudited until those systems are fixed.
Litigation over agency layoff plans continues in federal court. And the savings math faces a second test: the Partnership for Public Service says more than 20,000 positions have already been backfilled by agencies that had paid workers to leave.
More
The dispute is not really about the $9.5 billion figure, which both sides accept. It is about what the number means — wasteful spending by an efficiency drive, or an upfront cost that buys recurring annual savings. Without verifiable OPM data, neither side can prove its case.
Poll
Was the $9.5 billion in paid leave worth it?
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