More than 100,000 federal workers under the Trump administration in the United States will formally quit on Tuesday, local time, under the deferred resignation program.
The departures represent the largest single-year decline in civilian federal employment since the second world war.
A statement from Partnership for Public Service earlier this week describes the program as allowing “federal employees to transfer their workload, leave their job and go on administrative leave through a certain end date before resignation”.
“For many employees who elected to take the DRP, their last day of federal service will be Sept. 30, 2025," the statement continued.
The program is one of several ways the Trump administration has approached mass cuts to the federal workforce, and this new wave of resignations is coming in response to a deadline for more funding from Congress, also on Tuesday.
Additionally, the White House has ordered federal agencies to prepare plans for large-scale firings if partisan negotiations fall through without a deal in place.
According to a report from Connecticut Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal, the DPR will have a price tag of US$14.8 billion, as 200,000 workers receive full salary and benefits while on administrative leave for up to eight months.
