The White House this week invited employees of the federal government, including those connected with nuclear energy, weapons and cleanup, to take something akin to a buyout, by submitting a “deferred resignation.” .
In a memo dubbed “fork in the road” the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said federal employees can submit deferred resignations by Feb. 6 and apparently get paid through September, while being exempt to return-to-the-office policies or layoffs.
“If you resign under this program, you will retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload and will be exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until September 30, 2025 (or earlier if you choose to accelerate your resignation for any reason),” the proposal outlined on the OPM website said.
The emails went out Tuesday Jan. 28 and advise interested feds to merely reply to the OPM email via their official government email account. “Type the word ‘Resign’ into the body of this reply email. Hit ‘Send.’”
When asked by Exchange Monitor about the impact on the federal workforce within the Department of Energy’s weapons complex, one industry executive said the outflow could be about 10% with perhaps 60% of those departing being retirement-eligible, said one industry source. Hiring new, younger workers has been a major topic at nuclear-related conferences in recent years.
A second industry manager told the Monitor the percentage could be “pretty low” but there could be some significant departures. The DOE Office of Environmental Management has about 1,200 employees, according to recent federal budgets, while a watchdog agency, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, is only about a tenth as large.
DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration has about 2,600 federal workers, according to an Internet search. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission employs about 3,000, according to its website.
According to media accounts, legal and union challenges are likely on the White House “fork in the road” initiative.
“There may be concern from some if this is real or not,” said a third source, who does not work directly for the nuclear industry but resides in a DOE nuclear site community.
The program, part of President Donald Trump’s goal to shrink government, has sparked a flurry of news coverage. A personal finance columnist for the Washington Post advised feds not to make quickie decisions, especially if it is unclear how someone might rescind a resignation if they change their mind.
The head of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) said in a Tuesday statement the move is part of a White House effort to pressure federal employees into leaving government service. “Purging the federal government of dedicated career civil servants will have vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government,” said AFGE President Everett Kelley.
On Wednesday, AFGE announced it was joining the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in suing the Trump administration over what the unions deem “efforts to politicize the civil service through illegal executive orders.”
