A brand new report from the Authorities Accountability Workplace (GAO) analyzing payroll information discovered a 435% improve in federal businesses’ use of administrative go away between 2023 and 2025, amounting to $9.5 billion in paid salaries to off-the-clock staff. The watchdog attributed $6.7 billion of the entire to the deferred resignation program carried out below the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) as a part of its efforts to chop down the federal workforce.
Civilian salaries and advantages make up about 5.5% of the federal price range, but had been among the many first of Elon Musk’s cuts to federal spending. In February 2025, DOGE despatched out a “Fork within the Street” electronic mail to 2 million federal staff, providing them the chance to voluntarily resign whereas receiving full pay and advantages by means of the tip of September that 12 months. Almost 140,000 staff took the deal, in keeping with federal information.
OPM Director Scott Kupor disputed the GAO’s findings, claiming in a current Substack publish personnel cuts will save taxpayers cash over time following the elimination of those people from the federal government payroll.
“The GAO report fails to spotlight the distinction between a one-time expense ($9.5 billion) to cut back the dimensions of the federal authorities by 270,000 staff and the $40 billion per 12 months financial savings in taxpayer {dollars} that this discount gives,” Kupor instructed Fortune in an announcement. “That 400% return on funding is an enormous profit to the taxpayer.”
To make sure, the GAO stated the accuracy of the information could also be impacted by variations in how businesses report administrative go away, a persistent problem spanning administrations. A 2014 GAO report discovered variations in how the Division of Protection and the now-defunct U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth grant go away, calling on OPM to develop steerage to standardize how this time is recorded.
Musk assembled the particular advisory within the early days of President Donald Trump’s second administration to be able to curb authorities fraud and waste, claiming to have saved taxpayers $215 billion from cancelled grants and contracts and workforce reductions, although specialists have disputed the precise financial savings as a lot much less. The federal deficit and authorities spending have elevated throughout Trump’s second time period, with the U.S. debt rising by round $3.8 trillion since January 2025.
Since DOGE’s first cuts, the federal government workforce is about 12% smaller, with greater than 271,000 federal staff leaving the federal government since Trump took workplace a second time.
The impression of deferred resignation past the {dollars}
Federal employment assume tanks have already sounded the alarm concerning the impression of the deferred resignation program on federal authorities operations. Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit helping in authorities employee recruitment, famous in a report launched final month many businesses have or wish to backfill greater than 20,000 roles left vacant from this system.
In lots of instances, these roles are being crammed by new staff who lack the specialization or institutional data of the employees they’re changing, in keeping with the nonprofit, threatening the effectivity of an company’s mandates. On common, these new hires have a common schedule (GS) grade—the system figuring out the classification and pay of federal staff—that’s 1.4 grades decrease than these staff who left below the deferred resignation program, the report discovered. These GS grade variations had been particularly pronounced in prison investigation jobs, with a -6.1 GS differential between new and outdated staff within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
The nonprofit urged the impression of those hiring adjustments are already being felt by each the federal government workforce and on a regular basis Individuals. It famous job listings in 54 cities between March and August 2025 for U.S. Division of Agriculture shopper security inspector positions left vacant in workplaces the place staff who accepted deferred resignation as soon as labored. The openings correlate with a 40% improve in shopper complaints about meat and egg merchandise final 12 months, in addition to a cyclospora outbreak public well being specialists have linked with DOGE-related cuts to overseas inspection personnel and parasite monitoring applications.
“Whereas it’s not possible to completely quantify this lack of institutional data and capability, one factor is evident,” the report stated. “The DRP has made it tougher for businesses throughout the federal government to serve the general public.”
