Nearly a fifth of EPA’s workforce has opted into President Donald Trump’s mass resignation plan as he pushes to reduce the federal government’s payroll.
About 2,620 employees have taken the “deferred resignation” offer at EPA, according to figures the agency shared with POLITICO’s E&E News on Friday. EPA has reviewed all its applications for the program, including all four rounds offered this year.
At the end of September, 15,166 EPA employees were on board at the agency, its latest government shutdown plan indicated. Using that number as a baseline, more than 17 percent of EPA staff, a sizable chunk of its headcount, has left or will leave by the end of this year as part of the resignation program.
In January, soon after Trump’s inauguration, more than 2 million federal employees, including at EPA, received an email to join the resignation program, also known as the “Fork in the Road.” They were offered a chance to leave public service, go on administrative leave with full pay and benefits, and then voluntarily resign later in the year.
EPA officials validated the program in emails to staff and offered four rounds of “deferred resignation” to encourage employees to leave. The agency opened its final round for the program in September, targeted at staffers for the Office of Research and Development, which closed on Oct. 3.
The Trump administration plans to eliminate the EPA research office. The agency already stood up last month a smaller replacement program, the Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions, located in the administrator’s office.
Government workers left their agencies on Sept. 30 or will later on Dec. 31 as part of the deferred resignation program.
Roughly 154,000 workers opted into the program, according to the Office of Personnel Management. About 100,000 employees left in September, while the other 50,000 will exit by year’s end.
Contact this reporter on Signal at KevinBogardus.89.
