Federal employees question Trump’s buyout as being legal or legit

Jan. 30, 2025 8:10 p.m.

Federal employees question Trump’s buyout as being legal or legit

President Trump put out an ultimatum that federal employees who have been working from home can either return to the office or resign. But federal employees are questioning if Trump’s offer is legal or even truly legitimate.

“It’s a great illustration of the old adage that if a thing seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t true,” Jacqueline Simon, policy director at the American Federation of Government Employees, one of the main federal employee unions, told The Hill.

“We’re under a [continuing resolution] that expires in mid-March, and so the whole idea of promising full pay and benefits for no work for seven months or eight months … We can’t find the legal authority that OPM has to do this, rather than the agencies themselves,” she added, using the Office of Personnel Management acronym.