Leaders at the Department of Education told staff Wednesday that the Trump administration could cancel its controversial, government-wide deferred resignation offer after workers sign it, possibly leaving them without months of guaranteed pay.
According to a report in NBC News, citing three department sources, two top department officials said during a virtual all-staff meeting on Wednesday that the education secretary could rescind the administration’s offer, which allows workers to voluntarily resign and be paid until September 30. The government could also simply stop paying the deferred salary.
In each case, staff would be left with little recourse because accepting the deferred resignation package would require waiving the right to legal claims, NBC News reported. Workers across the federal government have been told they must decide whether or not to accept the buyout offer by Thursday night.
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“It sounded like a commercial for a used car dealership, like, ‘Act now, one day only,’” an official who attended the meeting told the broadcaster.
Spokespersons for the Department of Education and United States Office of Personnel Management claimed to NBC this was not true, citing a memo which says “assurances are binding on the government.”
However, that same memo also says the heads of federal agencies have “sole discretion” to rescind the agreements and that employees waive “all rights” to challenge them.
The fact that the education secretary could simply rescind their offer, NBC reported, left department staff worried that the deferred resignation offer could essentially amount to a bait-and-switch: sign it and then be faced with the government reneging on its commitments.
A second official told NBC News of the resulting crash in morale: “One of the managers I work with just said he hasn’t seen any emails in the last four hours since the meeting ended, because everybody just kind of had the life sucked out of them.”
Department of Education officials have the added worry that Trump has pledged to completely dismantle the department, a longtime aim among conservative and evangelical Republicans. Trump advisers are reportedly already strategizing ways to make that dream a reality.
Trump nominated Linda McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment who ran the Small Business Administration in his first term in office, as education secretary. If she is confirmed—hearings have yet to be held—she would be the person with the discretion to rescind the buyout offers.
A dozen state attorneys general warned federal employees on Tuesday that the Trump administration’s buyout offer is “misleading.”
“Read the fine print before signing and be cautious, as certain benefits may not be guaranteed,” said Michigan Attorney General Dana Nesse, in a statement.
At least 40,000 federal employees have accepted the offer, a White House source told Reuters Wednesday, representing roughly two percent of the 2.3 million civilian bureaucrats.
Trump and his billionaire lieutenant Elon Musk have both aggressively pushed for mass resignations, and Musk’s federal spending task force DOGE has caused havoc throughout the federal workforce by trying to access department systems with a team that includes non-government employees and teenagers.
CNN reported Tuesday that the Trump administration is plotting mass layoffs that will target workers who don’t offer to resign.
Employee unions have instructed their workers not to accept the offers and a court is scheduled to hear a legal effort by unions to block the offer Thursday afternoon.
