What’s the deal with the USAID buyouts?

Today, USAID staff received another email from the agency’s front office — one that claimed that if they resign, staff will continue to receive government pay and benefits until Sept. 30, 2025, “without any expectation of performing work.” The email, seen by Devex, is just one of several from the Office of Personnel Management, the federal agency that’s been encouraging staff across the government to “move from lower productivity jobs in the public sector to higher productivity jobs in the private sector.” “We’d love to have them leave,” said United States President Donald Trump, speaking from the Oval Office last week. “It’s our dream to have everybody, almost, working in the private sector not in the public sector.” It’s one piece of the work being led by the Department for Government Efficiency, or DOGE — the budget-slashing office headed up by billionaire Elon Musk. As thousands have been pulled from USAID, thousands more are now left wondering: Will the money promised to them by OPM still be there if they sign? “People don’t trust it,” one USAID staff member told Devex. “Everything I’ve read says it’s not legal, and I think that’s giving everyone pause if they were considering it.” The buyouts are being referred to by OPM as “deferred resignation.” Staff have until Feb. 6, 2025, to accept the offers — and if they do so, staff members will continue to work until Feb. 28, 2025. After March 1, the agreement form states that staff will continue to receive their current salary, along with their health, dental, and vision benefits. They will also continue to accrue annual and sick leave, receive retirement service credit, and be eligible for any predetermined salary increases, even if they get a new job. But despite those promises, employment attorneys, union representatives, and members of Congress have warned that OPM lacks the authority to make such an offer, especially given the fact that federal agencies don’t have guaranteed funding after March 14, 2025, when the current government budget expires. “There are fundamental questions about the legal basis for the deferred resignation offer,” reads the guidance on one website established to support federal workers, Civil Service Strong. “There are questions about whether the budget process will allow for them to honor the offer. And when Elon Musk adopted this exact same tactic in the past, he did not honor the bargain.” The federal buyouts mirror what Musk offered when he took over the social media platform Twitter, slashing more than half of the company’s workforce and offering buyouts under the same framing as today’s, referring to both proposals as “A Fork in the Road.” The first time around, Musk was sued for not paying $500 million worth of severance to thousands of ex-Twitter employees, though the case was later dismissed in July 2024. “These buyouts are a complete sham and in line with Donald Trump’s long history of stiffing employees,” Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a Democrat from California, told Devex on Tuesday. “His actions to dismantle USAID will make us less safe and cost lives.” Senior reporter Sara Jerving contributed to this report.