The federal authorities is reportedly paying greater than 154,000 workers to not report back to work beneath the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program.
Hundreds have been receiving pay since June and can proceed to be compensated till the tip of fiscal yr 2025, in keeping with a report from the The Washington Post.
The outlet spoke with two Workplace of Personnel Administration (OPM) officers beneath the situation of anonymity. The precise quantity for particular person salaries being shelled out stays unknown.
OPM spokeswoman McLaurine Pinover instructed the Put up that over 150,000 workers have been supplied “a dignified and beneficiant departure” from the federal authorities.
“It additionally delivered unimaginable aid to the American taxpayer. No earlier administration has gotten even near saving American taxpayers this amount of cash in such a brief period of time,” Pinover mentioned in an announcement.
OPM and the White Home didn’t instantly reply to The Hill’s request for touch upon the matter.
Democrats have brazenly slammed the deferred resignation program as a wasteful measure.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), rating member on the Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigations has referred to as for an investigation into the layoffs as a part of a broader probe in to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“Within the absence of dependable data from the Trump Administration concerning DOGE’s actions, the -Subcommittee was compelled to estimate the prices that DOGE has imposed on the American folks in simply six months. Because of this, the Subcommittee’s estimation that DOGE has generated greater than $21.7 billion in waste doubtless represents solely a portion of DOGE’s true monetary impression,” Blumenthal wrote in a Tuesday letter to Inspector Basic Michael Horowitz.
The Connecticut Democrat acknowledged that $14.8 billion was wasted beneath the deferred resignation program which paid virtually 200,000 workers to not work for as much as eight months.
He mentioned $6.1 billion was used on an extra 100,000 workers involuntarily faraway from federal service and those that stay on extended durations of administrative depart pending separation, in keeping with a minority report for the subcommittee launched on Tuesday.
“As an inspector basic, it’s your responsibility to root out waste fraud and abuse within the federal applications maintained by the company that you just oversee,” Blumenthal mentioned.
“In gentle of the Subcommittee’s findings, I write to request that you just provoke a complete overview of DOGE’s actions inside your company with a view to decide the total scope of prices that DOGE’s careless actions have imposed.”