Federal workers were paid billions to stay home as Trump administration pushed DOGE cuts

More than 144,000 federal employees took administrative leave under a deferred resignation program tied to the administration’s workforce reduction efforts.

The federal government spent roughly $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave for federal employees in 2025, much of it connected to the Trump administration’s effort to shrink the federal workforce, according to a new Government Accountability Office review.

The spending represented a 435% increase from 2023, according to the GAO findings reported by The Guardian. Of the total, approximately $6.7 billion was associated with the Deferred Resignation Program, an initiative tied to the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Under the program, federal employees who agreed to resign were allowed to remain on the government payroll while receiving their regular compensation for a period of time.

The GAO found that 144,312 federal employees across 76 agencies took leave through the program, accounting for approximately 21.6 million workdays.

The findings offer a new look at the financial cost of the administration’s push to reduce the federal workforce. Since 2023, the federal workforce has declined by approximately 355,000 employees, although some workers have subsequently been rehired following concerns about the effects of the reductions.

The spending has drawn criticism from lawmakers and government watchdogs who argue that the effort to reduce the federal workforce resulted in significant costs while also removing experienced employees from government agencies.

Sen. Patty Murray, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, criticized the program, pointing to what she described as the consequences of pushing experienced federal employees out of government.

Those consequences included staffing shortages and delays involving Social Security, veterans’ hospitals, firefighting operations and cybersecurity, according to the report.

The Office of Personnel Management, however, has defended the approach, arguing that the upfront cost of the deferred resignation program would ultimately produce substantial savings for taxpayers.

The GAO findings add another layer to the debate over the administration’s effort to dramatically reshape the federal workforce: While the cuts were intended to reduce government spending and staffing, the transition itself carried a multibillion-dollar price tag.