(SeaPRwire) – By: Gwendolyn Vance
The federal government spent $9.5 billion paying employees to not work last year. Most of that expenditure links directly to a Department of Government Efficiency initiative designed to downsize the federal workforce. A new Government Accountability Office report published Tuesday reveals that paid administrative leave surged 435% from 2023 to 2025. Associated salary costs multiplied sixfold during that same timeframe. The congressional watchdog analyzed payroll data from 76 agencies representing about 95% of the civilian federal workforce.
Roughly $6.7 billion, accounting for about 70% of the 2025 total, went toward the administration’s deferred resignation program launched in January 2025. That initiative offered approximately 2 million federal workers full pay and benefits through September 30 to encourage voluntary departures. The Office of Personnel Management directed agencies to place participating employees on paid administrative leave immediately. In total, 139,963 federal employees exited the government through these deferred resignation programs.
This downsizing effort operated under the broader banner of DOGE, championed by tech billionaire Elon Musk before his departure in May 2025. Musk initially promised $2 trillion in savings, later scaling that target down to $100 billion, while DOGE’s official website claimed $215 billion. The GAO reviewed $110 billion of those claimed savings and found several estimates unsupported or incorrect. Meanwhile, federal data showed a net decline of 271,363 civilian federal employees—about 12% of the workforce—between the inauguration and July.
Staff reductions hit agencies unevenly. USAID saw its workforce plummet by 95% between December 2024 and January 2026. The Education Department dropped 46%, the General Services Administration fell 37%, and OPM decreased by 34%. By contrast, the Department of Homeland Security reduced its headcount by less than 1%. Some agencies quickly reversed course. The Partnership for Public Service identified 20,557 hires by June 2026 into the exact same job categories emptied by the deferred resignation exits.
OPM Director Scott Kupor defended the program’s long-term economics in a letter responding to the GAO findings. Kupor argued that the workforce cuts will generate $20 billion in recurring annual savings, framing the $6.7 billion payout as a necessary one-time transition cost. Beyond deferred resignations, the administration enforced a strict hiring freeze, limited new hires to one for every four departures, and pursued extensive probationary worker reviews alongside large-scale layoff preparations.
These aggressive reduction tactics triggered immediate legal pushback and operational chaos. A federal judge ruled that OPM exceeded its authority by firing thousands of probationary workers, though no reinstatement was ordered. A DHS plan to cut FEMA staffing by 50% was similarly struck down as unlawful. During the October 2025 government shutdown, the administration issued layoff notices to around 4,100 employees, threatening over 10,000 cuts. Congress nullified those layoffs by statute when the shutdown ended in November, mandating reinstatements and back pay.
Author bio: Gwendolyn Vance, a deep-cover federal administration watch reporter and independent newsletter publisher.