'Back of the napkin math': GOP officials call Trump buyouts illegal
Some Republicans are saying that President Donald Trump’s proposed buyouts to federal workers are illegal, CBS News reported Monday. The deal, critics say, would earmark money before Congress has said it can be spent.
The “fork in the road” deal would allow federal workers to decide if they want to resign in September, allowing them to go on administrative leave in the interim and continue to collect a paycheck. Workers have until Thursday to decide of they accept the terms. The program is similar to one that billionaire Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, offered to X employees when he bought the site, then Twitter, in 2022.
Some politicians have said that this move violates the Anti-Deficiency Act, which prevents federal agencies from spending money in advance. Congress has agreed on government funding through mid-March, well before September.
READ MORE: 'Check out Schoolhouse Rock': JD Vance schooled on how government works
The Trump administration's Office of Personnel Management sent an email detailing the proposal. “Q: The current funding bill for the federal government expires on March 14. Will I still receive full pay and benefits if the money runs out?” OPM wrote.
OPM continued: “A: Any government shutdown could potentially affect an employee's pay regardless of whether he or she has accepted the deferred resignation offer. Moreover, if you accept the deferred resignation offer, you would still be entitled to backpay under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act.”
An anonymous Republican told CBS: "Anybody else would be walked out of an agency for going $1 beyond appropriated dollars. Back of the napkin math of offering to pay all federal employees for 6.5 months beyond current appropriations is about $50 billion — not everyone will take the offer, but it was offered to all of them, thus it incurs an obligation.”
The proposal is outside of OPM’s power, two lawmakers told CBS, because the pay has not been approved by Congress. "OPM does not regulate the use of administrative leave. This authority rests with each agency head,” OPM writes in a fact sheet on its website. Some experts have also suggested that employees could violate ethics rules by taking a nongovernment job.
READ MORE: Ex-US treasury secretary warns Trump’s 'absurd' tariffs are 'driving people into China's arms'
Robert Reich, former secretary of labor, wrote a letter to federal employees on his Substack: “The fact is, neither Musk nor even Trump has legal authority to offer you eight months of pay if you’ll resign by February 6. Your salaries are funded by the federal agencies and departments you work for, not by the Office of Personnel Management, not by Musk, and not by Trump. None of them is authorized by Congress to move money from one agency or department to another without Congress’s approval. I know. I used to be a Cabinet secretary.
“Besides,” he continued, “the funding for your agency or department is guaranteed only through March 14, when the government is expected to shut down unless the debt ceiling is lifted. If not, any commitment for additional pay is worthless.”
