Latest news with #ForkDirective
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Roughly 75,000 federal employees agree to Trump's buyout offer
Roughly 75,000 federal employees have accepted President Donald Trump's deferred resignation program, after the U.S. Office of Personnel Management offered more than two million federal civilian employees buyouts in January to leave their jobs or be forced to return to work in person. Employees who accepted the so-called "fork in the road" offer will retain all pay and benefits and be exempt from in-person work until Sept. 30, a move that's part of a broader attempt by the Trump administration to downsize the federal government. "We have too many people," Trump told reporters Tuesday in a press briefing. "We have office spaces occupied by 4% — nobody showing up to work because they were told not to." The White House confirmed to Fox News Digital that numbers had climbed to 75,000 as of Thursday morning. It previously said it expected 200,000 people to accept the offer. Judge Restores Trump Administration's Buyout Offer To Federal Workers Read On The Fox News App The Trump administration's offer faced scrutiny, and a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration's plan from advancing amid challenges from labor union groups who voiced concerns that the law didn't require the Trump administration to hold up its end of the deal. However, U.S. District Judge George O'Toole of Massachusetts ruled in favor of the White House Wednesday evening, asserting the plaintiffs in the case aren't directly impacted by the Trump administration's offer. They "allege that the directive subjects them to upstream effects including a diversion of resources to answer members' questions about the directive, a potential loss of membership, and possible reputational harm," O'Toole wrote. "The unions do not have the required direct stake in the Fork Directive, but are challenging a policy that affects others, specifically executive branch employees," O'Toole wrote. "This is not sufficient." The Trump administration praised the court's decision, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described it as "the first of many legal wins for the president." 'Get Back To Work': House Oversight To Take On Government Telework In 1St Hearing Of New Congress "The court dissolved the injunction due to a lack of standing," Leavitt said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "This goes to show that lawfare will not ultimately prevail over the will of 77 million Americans who supported President Trump and his priorities." The buyout program is one of several initiatives the Trump administration has unveiled to cut down the federal workforce. On Tuesday, Trump also signed an executive order instructing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to coordinate with federal agencies and execute massive cuts in federal workforce staffing numbers. The order instructs DOGE and federal agencies to work together to "significantly" shrink the size of the federal government and limit hiring new employees, according to a White House fact sheet on the order. Specifically, agencies must not hire more than one employee for every four that leave their federal post. Agencies also are instructed to "undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force" and evaluate ways to eliminate or combine agency functions that aren't legally required, the fact sheet said. Fox News' Andrea Margolis, Jake Gibson, Jacqui Heinrich and Patrick Ward contributed to this report. Original article source: Roughly 75,000 federal employees agree to Trump's buyout offer
CNN
13-02-2025
- Business
- CNN
Federal judge lets Trump's ‘buyout' plan for federal employees proceed
A federal judge in Boston on Wednesday allowed the Trump administration to move forward for the moment with its deferred resignation offer for federal employees. US District Judge George O'Toole said federal employee unions, which brought a lawsuit on behalf of their members, are not directly impacted by the offer, so they lack standing to bring this case. He had previously issued a temporary restraining order against the program. The ruling is a major win for the Trump administration, which has struggled to successfully defend its policies in court in roughly four dozen lawsuits. The deferred resignation offer is a key piece of the Trump administration's effort to downsize the federal government. About 75,000 workers have accepted the package, according McLaurine Pinover, a spokeswoman for the Office of Personnel Management. The program closed at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Semafor first reported the number of employees who opted in. The offer will generally allow them to leave their jobs but be paid through the end of September – though the unions and many workers have said that the information the administration has released about the package has been conflicting and confusing. The 75,000 figure represents close to 4% of the roughly 2 million federal employees who received the incentive. However, not all may ultimately be able to take it since the administration exempted some positions after sending the offer – but the number of people in that situation is very low, Pinover said. The White House has said its target is for between 5% and 10% of employees to resign. On Tuesday, Trump took a step to prepare for widespread layoffs among those who remain. Eligible employees initially had until the end of last Thursday night to apply, but the Trump administration extended the deadline to just before midnight on Monday after O'Toole's temporary pause. In his five-page ruling, O'Toole, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, said he was wiping away his earlier orders that had extended the deadline for federal workers to accept the administration's deferred resignation offer. Those orders frustrated the administration's attempt to bring a quick close to the so-called buyout offer. The program was challenged by the American Federation of Government Employees and several other unions that argued it was unlawful and harmed them because it would divert resources to address 'the tidal wave of inquiries and counseling requests that the Fork Directive has caused.' But O'Toole said those alleged harms are 'not sufficient' to give the unions the legal right – known as standing – to bring the lawsuit in the first place. 'The unions do not have the required direct stake in the Fork Directive, but are challenging a policy that affects others, specifically executive branch employees,' the judge wrote. Lawyers for AFGE, the largest federal employee union, are evaluating the decision and assessing the next steps, Everett Kelley, the group's national president, said in a statement. 'Today's ruling is a setback in the fight for dignity and fairness for public servants. But it's not the end of that fight,' he said. 'Importantly, this decision did not address the underlying lawfulness of the program.' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt praised the ruling by the Massachusetts judge, hours after she suggested that some judges hearing cases pending against the Trump administration were 'judicial activists.' 'This Boston Buyout Ruling is the first of many legal wins for the President,' Leavitt said in a statement to CNN. 'The Court dissolved the injunction due to a lack of standing. This goes to show that lawfare will not ultimately prevail over the will of 77 million Americans who supported President Trump and his priorities.' O'Toole's ruling that unions don't have standing could impact the various attempts to stop Trump administration policies, especially when federal workers' unions have challenged those policies in the Washington, DC, federal court. Unions are making a lot of the emergency claims to stop the Department of Government Efficiency around privacy issues, employment and others, and O'Toole noted in his ruling the DC Circuit has already held unions can't go straight to federal district court on a lot of matters under the Federal Labor Relations Authority. This story has been updated with additional developments.
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Judge rules Trump's sweeping plan to persuade federal workers to resign can move forward
A federal judge in Boston on Wednesday dissolved his temporary freeze on the Trump administration's unprecedented offer for millions of federal workers to resign, allowing the controversial "fork in the road" program to proceed. U.S. District Judge George A. O'Toole Jr. had temporarily halted the administration's offer of mass buyouts to millions of federal workers last week, just hours before the Thursday deadline for employees to accept it. That order came after labor unions representing government workers filed suit alleging that the administration did not have the legal authority to offer such buyouts. In his ruling Wednesday, O'Toole found that the unions lacked legal standing to bring the suit."The plaintiffs here are not directly impacted by the directive. Instead, they allege that the directive subjects them to upstream effects including a diversion of resources to answer members' questions about the directive, a potential loss of membership, and possible reputational harm," he wrote. "The unions do not have the required direct stake in the Fork Directive, but are challenging a policy that affects others, specifically executive branch employees. This is not sufficient," O'Toole added. He said the "temporary restraining order previously entered is DISSOLVED and further preliminary injunctive relief is DENIED." White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt praised the judge's action. 'This Boston Buyout Ruling is the first of many legal wins for the President," she said in a statement. "This goes to show that lawfare will not ultimately prevail over the will of 77 million Americans who supported President Trump and his priorities.' Everett Kelley, the head of the one of the unions involved in the suit, the American Federation of Government Employees, called the ruling 'a setback in the fight for dignity and fairness for public servants. But it's not the end of that fight. AFGE's lawyers are evaluating the decision and assessing next steps." He also noted the ruling "did not address the underlying lawfulness of the program." Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward and counsel for the plaintiffs, said in a statement, 'We will continue to pursue all legal options to defend the civil service and protect the American people from extremism.' The Office of Personnel Management extended the mass 'deferred resignation' offer to employees in a Jan. 28 email with the subject line 'Fork in the Road.' The program says it will allow workers to resign now but get paid through September. Some legal experts have questioned the validity of the offer. Education Department staffers were warned last week that the administration could theoretically decide to cancel the plan and leave them high and dry. A senior administration official told NBC News at the time the offer was first made that 5% to 10% of the federal workforce were expected to quit. The official estimated that could lead to $100 billion in savings. When O'Toole froze the program last week, 60,000 workers had accepted the deal. While most full-time federal employees are eligible for the offer, there were exceptions for members of the military, employees of the U.S. Postal Service, people in positions related to immigration enforcement and national security and people in other jobs excluded by agencies. This article was originally published on
CNN
13-02-2025
- Business
- CNN
Federal judge lets Trump's ‘buyout' plan for federal employees proceed
A federal judge in Boston on Wednesday allowed the Trump administration to move forward for the moment with its deferred resignation offer for federal employees. US District Judge George O'Toole said federal employee unions, which brought a lawsuit on behalf of their members, are not directly impacted by the offer, so they lack standing to bring this case. He had previously issued a temporary restraining order against the program. The ruling is a major win for the Trump administration, which has struggled to successfully defend its policies in court in roughly four dozen lawsuits. The deferred resignation offer is a key piece of the Trump administration's effort to downsize the federal government. About 75,000 workers have accepted the package, according McLaurine Pinover, a spokeswoman for the Office of Personnel Management. The program closed at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Semafor first reported the number of employees who opted in. The offer will generally allow them to leave their jobs but be paid through the end of September – though the unions and many workers have said that the information the administration has released about the package has been conflicting and confusing. The 75,000 figure represents close to 4% of the roughly 2 million federal employees who received the incentive. However, not all may ultimately be able to take it since the administration exempted some positions after sending the offer – but the number of people in that situation is very low, Pinover said. The White House has said its target is for between 5% and 10% of employees to resign. On Tuesday, Trump took a step to prepare for widespread layoffs among those who remain. Eligible employees initially had until the end of last Thursday night to apply, but the Trump administration extended the deadline to just before midnight on Monday after O'Toole's temporary pause. In his five-page ruling, O'Toole, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, said he was wiping away his earlier orders that had extended the deadline for federal workers to accept the administration's deferred resignation offer. Those orders frustrated the administration's attempt to bring a quick close to the so-called buyout offer. The program was challenged by the American Federation of Government Employees and several other unions that argued it was unlawful and harmed them because it would divert resources to address 'the tidal wave of inquiries and counseling requests that the Fork Directive has caused.' But O'Toole said those alleged harms are 'not sufficient' to give the unions the legal right – known as standing – to bring the lawsuit in the first place. 'The unions do not have the required direct stake in the Fork Directive, but are challenging a policy that affects others, specifically executive branch employees,' the judge wrote. Lawyers for AFGE, the largest federal employee union, are evaluating the decision and assessing the next steps, Everett Kelley, the group's national president, said in a statement. 'Today's ruling is a setback in the fight for dignity and fairness for public servants. But it's not the end of that fight,' he said. 'Importantly, this decision did not address the underlying lawfulness of the program.' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt praised the ruling by the Massachusetts judge, hours after she suggested that some judges hearing cases pending against the Trump administration were 'judicial activists.' 'This Boston Buyout Ruling is the first of many legal wins for the President,' Leavitt said in a statement to CNN. 'The Court dissolved the injunction due to a lack of standing. This goes to show that lawfare will not ultimately prevail over the will of 77 million Americans who supported President Trump and his priorities.' O'Toole's ruling that unions don't have standing could impact the various attempts to stop Trump administration policies, especially when federal workers' unions have challenged those policies in the Washington, DC, federal court. Unions are making a lot of the emergency claims to stop the Department of Government Efficiency around privacy issues, employment and others, and O'Toole noted in his ruling the DC Circuit has already held unions can't go straight to federal district court on a lot of matters under the Federal Labor Relations Authority. This story has been updated with additional developments.
CBS News
13-02-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Judge allows federal worker "buyout" plan to proceed, and Trump administration announces it's closed
Boston — A federal judge in Massachusetts allowed the Trump administration's bid to offer " deferred resignations" to federal workers who voluntarily leave government service to continue and lifted a previous court order pausing the program's deadline. Shortly after the ruling, Office of Personnel Management spokesperson McLaurine Pinover said in a statement that the office was "pleased" with the court's decision and that the deferred resignation program was closed as of 7 p.m. Wednesday. Judge George O'Toole, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, ruled Wednesday that the plaintiffs in the case — unions that represent federal employees — lacked standing to bring the case in the first place. He also ruled he did not have the jurisdiction to stop the program from proceeding. The judge initially paused the original Feb. 6 deadline for workers to accept the offer last week, and held a hearing on Monday over whether he should issue a temporary restraining order extending the pause. The Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, notified the more than 2 million federal employees last month that they had the option to resign their positions and retain full pay and benefits until Sept. 30. Federal workers who agreed to resign would also be exempt from in-person work requirements through September and would not be required to work at their government jobs during the deferred resignation period, according to the notice. The message from OPM, bearing the subject line "Fork in the Road," notified workers who did not accept the offer that the Trump administration could not give them "full assurance" about their continuing employment. OPM also noted that many federal agencies would be downsized "through restructurings, realignments and reductions in force." Unions representing federal workers sued the federal government last week to stop the deadline and challenge the legality of the program, arguing it violates federal law. But in his ruling on Wednesday, O'Toole wrote the unions' alleged damages were not "sufficient." He found that the plaintiffs were "not directly impacted by the directive." "They allege that the directive subjects them to upstream effects including a diversion of resources to answer members' questions about the directive, a potential loss of membership, and possible reputational harm," the judge wrote. "The unions do not have the required direct stake in the Fork Directive, but are challenging a policy that affects others." O'Toole also wrote that aggrieved employees who might take issue with the deferred resignation program and its deadline are statutorily required to first challenge the program via an administrative — as opposed to judicial – review process. "That the unions themselves may be foreclosed from this administrative process does not mean that adequate judicial review is lacking," the judge wrote. Pinover, the OPM spokesperson, said, "There is no longer any doubt: the Deferred Resignation Program was both legal and a valuable option for federal employees. This program was carefully designed, thoroughly vetted, and provides generous benefits so federal workers can plan for their futures." Democracy Forward's Skye Perrymann said in a statement on behalf of the unions, "We will continue to pursue all legal options to defend the civil service and protect the American people from extremism." The deferred resignation offer is part of a broader initiative undertaken by President Trump to slash the size of the federal government. The president issued several directives soon after the start of his second term last month that were aimed at reducing the federal workforce, including mandating employees return to their offices five days a week and reinstating an order that created a new category for many career civil servants, effectively stripping them of certain employment protections. He also tapped billionaire Elon Musk to oversee the White House's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Musk and DOGE employees have since targeted at least a dozen federal agencies, including the Treasury and Labor Departments.
