Federal workers told offer to get paid through September if they resign is ‘valid,’ ‘lawful’

(WASHINGTON) -- Federal workers across the government on Friday received emails from top officials at their agencies informing them that the resignation offers they received earlier this week are "valid, lawful, and will be honored."

The White House's Office of Personnel Management had told government workers in an email Tuesday that if they quit by Feb. 6, they would still get paid through Sept. 30.

Employment lawyers questioned whether such an offer was lawful because Congress, not the White House, is responsible for authorizing workers' paychecks. Many agencies are expected to run out of money this spring, with the federal government only funded through March, raising questions about how the Trump administration can promise those who take the buyouts would still get paid if the executive branch doesn't control spending.

Many federal workers also wondered whether the memo, titled "A Fork in the Road," was a phishing scam, prompting OPM to release a new memo assuring workers they are "most welcome [to] stay at home and relax or to travel to your dream destination. Whatever you would like."

On Friday morning, senior officials at the various agencies sent memos to staffers assuring them the offers were indeed real.

"On behalf of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), I am informing you that the offer is valid, lawful, and will be honored by USDA," said one such memo signed by Kailee Tkacz Buller, chief of staff at the Department of Agriculture.

"If you accept the deferred resignation offer, you will receive pay and benefits through September 30, 2025, and will not be subject to a reduction-in-force or other premature separation," she wrote.

However, Max Alonzo, the national secretary-treasurer for the National Federation of Federal Employees, a labor union that represents 110,000 federal workers, said his union is advising federal workers not to respond to the email.

In part, he said, the union is worried about the lack of clarity and specifics in the offer email. He pointed to the lack of a contract and the fact that Congress has not allocated funds for large-scale federal buyouts, and he worried people might offer to resign but not actually be paid in the end or may have their benefits stripped.

"Absolutely do not resign. There is nothing that says that the day that you resign, that they can't just let you go," he said. "They don't have to pay you -- there's nothing that says they have to pay you till Sept. 30. This is nothing that has been done before. This is not in our regulations. There's no regs about it. We're not even sure if it's actually legal. So, yeah, absolutely do not resign."

The buyout offers come as President Donald Trump has pushed for federal employees to return to working in person, signing an executive order on his first day in office calling for an end to teleworking.

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