Roughly 2,700 Interior Department employees accepted President Donald Trump’s “deferred resignation” offer, according to an internal email obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News.
The president’s Office of Personnel Management has reported that 75,000 federal employees agreed to the “Fork in the Road” deal, which promised full pay and benefits until September, in exchange for paid leave for employees willing to leave federal service. OPM has not yet released numbers for individual agencies nor said if all of the resignations would be accepted.
Interior did not comment on how the reduced staff will affect operations across its sprawling responsibilities, from managing national parks and monuments to implementing the Endangered Species Act and stewarding the nation’s vast oil and gas programs on public lands and waters. As of May 2024, Interior had about 67,000 employees, according to OPM.
The huge voluntary downsizing effort, spearheaded by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, comes as the White House on Thursday and Friday carried out sweeping layoffs, largely targeting relatively recent hires.
