Trump administration paid federal employees $9.5 billion not to work in 2025 under DOGE plan
By Tami Luhby, CNN
(CNN) — The Trump administration last year spent $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave for federal workers as part of its plan to shrink the government and save taxpayers money, according to a new estimate by a congressional watchdog.
The move represented a sixfold increase in paid leave salary costs compared to 2023, the Government Accountability Office said in a report.
Federal agencies’ use of paid administrative leave skyrocketed by 435% last year, driven largely by the controversial deferred resignation program pushed by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which was spearheaded by the billionaire Elon Musk. Administration officials had said the effort would save taxpayers billions of dollars.
Under the program, which was primarily offered early in President Donald Trump’s second term, federal staffers were allowed to resign but first be placed on paid leave for several months without having to work as an incentive to sign up. Some agencies offered more than one round of the program, which proved far more popular in later months as the extent of the Trump administration’s overhaul of the federal workforce became clearer and more employees feared for their jobs.
GAO estimated that about $6.7 billion was spent on the deferred resignation program, through which more than 144,000 employees were put on leave.
The US Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, does not know the actual costs of paid administrative leave used to shrink the federal workforce, GAO said, which noted that its figures could be overstated because of limitations with the data reported by agencies. OPM may also be unable to determine if long-term savings goals are being met because of the data issues, GAO added.
OPM took issue with GAO’s report, saying that it “fails to highlight the difference between a one-time expense ($9.5 billion) to reduce the size of the federal government by 270,000 employees and the $40 billion per year savings in taxpayer dollars that this reduction provides.”
“That 400% return on investment is a massive benefit to the taxpayer,” Scott Kupor, OPM’s director, said in a statement to CNN.
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.
OPM’s data shows that just under 140,000 workers participated in the deferred resignation program, which was launched days after Trump took office in January 2025 through an email with the subject line “Fork in the Road.” Unions had warned workers at the time not to take the offer, questioning whether the government would actually pay them through September, and unsuccessfully sued to halt it.
OPM defended the deferred resignation program in August 2025 in response to Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s report that criticized the effort as squandering taxpayer money.
“We designed the DRP as a practical, humane, and voluntary option to accelerate workforce transitions in a system that desperately needed movement,” Kupor said in a statement at the time. “Employees were given the option to retire early and receive eight months of paid leave; in return, the government will save $20+ billion in costs, annually.”
Citing the new GAO report, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, slammed the Trump administration for putting so many experienced federal employees on paid administrative leave.
“After promising to cut waste, Trump instead set billions upon billions in taxpayer dollars on fire to quite literally pay people not to do jobs they loved—from researching cancer cures to taking care of our National Parks, and so much else,” she said in a statement, adding, “This was the most expensive way imaginable to make government worse.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
