Agencies spent nearly $10 billion for feds not to work in 2025

The Government Accountability Office found that the use of paid administrative leave by federal agencies increased sixfold in 2025, as the Trump administration deployed the deferred resignation program to entice employees to quit. J. David Ake/Getty Images

The use of paid administrative leave as part of the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program, an effort to entice federal workers to quit, across government in 2025 was 435% higher than two years prior, according to a new GAO report.

The federal government spent nearly $10 billion placing more than 100,000 federal workers on paid administrative leave for extended periods last year, a sixfold increase from two years prior driven largely by the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program aimed at encouraging feds to quit public service.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office found that around 70% of that money, or $6.7 billion went to feds who opted into the DRP, a program by which agencies paid employees to stay home, in exchange for their resignation by September 2025—or December of that year, for retirement-eligible workers. While federal employees took 4 million workdays worth of leave in 2023 and 4.4 million in 2024, that number ballooned to 21.6 million workdays last year.

“Paid administrative leave usage peaked in July 2025 at nearly 3 million workdays; approximately 2.5 million of those workdays were associated with the deferred resignation program,” GAO wrote. “In 2023 and 2024, fewer than 600 federal employees took more than 90 workdays of paid administrative leave; in 2025, almost 100,000 employees took more than 90 days of paid administrative leave.”

The deferred resignation program came shortly after the Office of Personnel Management issued long-awaited regulations implementing the 2016 Administrative Leave Act, a law aimed at curbing the use of paid administrative leave.

OPM told agencies that those regulations would not take effect until September 2025, and later proposed a new rule codifying workforce realignment as a valid use of paid leave. OPM’s current guidance for agencies considering a deferred resignation program is to cap the period of paid administrative leave at 12 weeks.

GAO noted that its estimates regarding the costs of leave approved in connection with the deferred resignation program and other workforce restructuring efforts are likely a modest overcount. That’s because employees commonly misreport similar forms of paid time off, such as for a federal holiday or a doctor’s appointment, as well as the fact that OPM has not set up a dedicated leave category for leave connected to a workforce restructuring effort.

That means policymakers can’t know whether the Trump administration’s workforce reductions are actually reducing the cost of government, the report found. OPM Director Scott Kupor has previously said the DRP would save taxpayers $20 billion each year.

“To calculate the long-term government-wide savings of workforce reduction efforts, OPM needs to know the short-term costs of using paid administrative leave,” GAO wrote. “[Without] an accurate understanding of how much paid administrative leave costs the federal government, there is no way to accurately determine to what extent the government-wide cost-savings goal is being met. OPM officials stated that they have no plans to create an additional subcategory of paid administrative leave associated with workforce reductions.”

GAO recommended the OPM acknowledge the data reliability issues inherent in its public-facing paid leave data, as well as create a new category in federal payroll systems to report workforce-reduction related paid leave. In its response, the dedicated HR agency reversed course and said it would begin the process of creating a new leave category to better track the usage of and reasoning for paid leave.

“OPM agrees that a dedicated administrative leave data element for workforce reduction efforts would enable more timely reporting on its use and simplify future analysis,” Kupor wrote. “OPM will begin the process of developing a new paid administrative leave category focused on workforce reduction efforts, in coordination with agencies and payroll service providers.”

If you have a tip that can contribute to our reporting, Erich Wagner can be securely contacted at ewagner.47 on Signal.

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美国政府问责局发现，2025年联邦机构使用带薪行政休假的次数增加了六倍，原因是特朗普政府推行延迟辞职计划以诱导员工离职。J. David Ake/Getty Images

根据美国政府问责局 (GAO) 的一份新报告，到 2025 年，作为特朗普政府延迟辞职计划的一部分（旨在诱使联邦雇员辞职），政府各部门使用带薪行政休假的比例比两年前高出 435%。

去年，联邦政府花费近 100 亿美元让超过 10 万名联邦雇员带薪行政休假，比两年前增加了六倍，这主要是由于特朗普政府的延迟辞职计划，该计划旨在鼓励联邦雇员退出公共服务部门。

美国政府问责局的一份新报告显示，约70%的资金，即67亿美元，流向了选择加入“员工留职计划”（DRP）的联邦雇员。该计划允许各机构向员工支付工资，让他们待在家中，以换取他们在2025年9月之前辞职——对于符合退休条件的员工，则是在同年12月之前辞职。联邦雇员在2023年和2024年分别休了400万个工作日和440万个工作日的假，而去年这一数字飙升至2160万个工作日。

美国政府问责局（GAO）指出：“带薪行政假的使用量在2025年7月达到峰值，接近300万个工作日；其中约250万个工作日与延期辞职计划相关。2023年和2024年，只有不到600名联邦雇员休了超过90个工作日的带薪行政假；而到了2025年，这一数字接近10万。”

延迟辞职计划出台不久，人事管理办公室就发布了期待已久的法规，实施了 2016 年行政休假法案，该法案旨在限制带薪行政休假的使用。

美国人事管理局 (OPM) 告知各机构，这些规定要到 2025 年 9 月才会生效，之后又提出一项新规，将人员调整合法化为带薪休假的一种用途。OPM 目前对考虑实施延期辞职计划的机构的指导意见是，带薪行政休假的期限上限为 12 周。

美国政府问责局 (GAO) 指出，其对与延期辞职计划和其他劳动力重组措施相关的已批准休假成本的估算可能略有高估。这是因为员工通常会虚报类似的带薪休假，例如联邦假日或就医休假，而且美国人事管理办公室 (OPM) 尚未设立专门的与劳动力重组相关的休假类别。

报告指出，这意味着政策制定者无法得知特朗普政府的裁员措施是否真的降低了政府成本。美国人事管理局局长斯科特·库珀此前曾表示，裁员计划每年将为纳税人节省200亿美元。

美国政府问责局 (GAO) 指出：“为了计算裁员措施在政府层面带来的长期节约，人事管理办公室 (OPM) 需要了解带薪行政休假的短期成本。如果不准确了解联邦政府带薪行政休假的成本，就无法准确判断政府层面的成本节约目标在多大程度上得以实现。OPM 官员表示，他们没有计划设立与裁员相关的带薪行政休假子类别。”

美国政府问责局 (GAO) 建议人事管理办公室 (OPM) 承认其面向公众的带薪休假数据存在固有的可靠性问题，并在联邦工资系统中创建一个新的类别，用于报告与裁员相关的带薪休假。在回应中，这家专门负责人力资源的机构改变了之前的做法，表示将启动创建新休假类别的流程，以便更好地跟踪带薪休假的使用情况和原因。

库珀写道：“人事管理办公室（OPM）同意，设立专门用于裁员工作的行政休假数据项，将有助于更及时地报告休假使用情况，并简化未来的分析。OPM将与各机构和薪资服务提供商协调，着手制定一项新的带薪行政休假类别，重点关注裁员工作。”

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