His post quoted a statement Clinton made a year after he signed the Federal Workforce Restructuring Act. Under Clinton, the government offered mass buyouts. The administration set a midnight February 6 deadline for workers to accept the offer, but a federal judge in Massachusetts blocked that deadline and set a hearing for February The lawsuit questions whether the federal government will honour the commitment to pay participants through September Congress paved the way for buyouts. The legislation passed by wide, bipartisan margins: in the House and in the Senate.
The law set an April 1, , deadline. Clinton appointed Vice President Al Gore to lead the review and issue a report within six months.
About career civil servants worked on the review and created recommendations with agency employees. Gore brought up government-purchased ashtrays and read the federal regulations about how the ashtrays must break when dropped. Wearing safety goggles, Gore cracked the ashtray with a hammer. The Trump approach, so far, involves buyouts and firings, without a review period or congressional action.
Employees had until February 6 to resign and be paid through September 30 until the February 6 court intervention. The email hinted that layoffs were possible. About two million employees received the offer. The civilian federal workforce is about 2. Some workers were exempt from the offers, including the military, Postal Service employees and workers in immigration enforcement, national security and public safety. Democratic attorneys general said the payments may not be guaranteed and urged unionised workers to follow the guidance of their union officials.
Trump issued an order to reclassify workers so he can more easily fire them β another subject of lawsuits. An order to end federal diversity, equity and inclusion DEI programmes led to workers being placed on paid leave. A reporter asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt whether the programme was a way to purge the government of people who disagree with the president. And this administration is very generously offering to pay them for eight months.
