The Trump administration has offered roughly two million government employees the option to resign and continue being paid for several months, a move that could significantly reduce the size of the federal work force.
The plan immediately drew criticism from Democrats and unions representing federal workers, who said such a vast reduction would create chaos for Americans who rely on government services.
Here is a look at the plan and its possible implications:
What is the plan?
An email sent to employees on Tuesday by the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the federal civilian work force, was titled “Fork in the Road.” It laid out a program for deferred resignations, under which employees of federal agencies are given the option to resign and continue being paid until Sept. 30.
Anyone who accepts the offer will not be expected to continue working, except in rare cases, and would be paid until the end of September, it said. The last date to accept the offer is Feb. 6.
To do so, employees could simply send an email from their government account with the word “resign.”
The O.P.M. published a question-and-answer page about the plan on its website.
Why is the Trump administration doing this?
Slashing the size of the federal government is a priority for Mr. Trump, as it has been for many Republican presidents. After winning the November election, he said that a smaller and more efficient government, with less bureaucracy, would be a “perfect gift to America” for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.
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