Some 75,000 federal employees accepted the Trump administration’s “Fork in the Road” deferred resignation offer, a White House official confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
The figure represents less than 4% of the more than 2 million federal workers currently employed and is less than the 5% to 10% estimate officials were hoping to hit through the voluntary buyout.
U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. temporarily paused the deferred offer last week after several federal employee unions sued to block the Office of Personnel Management from moving forward.
O’Toole said in his ruling Wednesday that the unions did not have the standing to file the lawsuit and that his court did not have the jurisdiction to block the offer in a major win for the Trump administration.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the ruling “the first of many legal wins” for President Donald Trump in a statement.
Employees who accepted the deferred resignation program will continue to receive pay and benefits through September but were told they will not have to return to the office during the eight-month period. However, Democrats have warned the federal workforce that the government is only funded through March 14.
The program is part of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency’s attempt to slash federal spending and the federal workforce. Employees who did not accept the offer by Wednesday evening are expected to return to the office.
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, slammed O’Toole’s ruling in a statement, calling it a “setback in the fight for dignity and fairness for public servants.”
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AFGE, along with the National Association of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, were the three major unions that brought the lawsuit to block OPM’s “Fork in the Road” offer.
Two days before the ruling was issued, Trump signed an executive order directing federal employees to work with DOGE as it slashes the government workforce.
