Senate Democrats want answers on Trump federal employee buyout offer

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Two Democratic senators on Tuesday said they had asked the White House for key details about the Trump administration’s financial incentive offer to about 2 million federal workers to quit their jobs.

Senator Gary Peters, top Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and Richard Blumenthal, lead Democrat on an investigations subcommittee, said the “promises made to federal workers in this program contravene existing law” and “will contribute untold amounts to government waste and inefficiency.”

They want detailed weekly data on how many workers have sought to take part by agency and how agencies will function without those workers.

The administration has offered to allow federal workers to keep regular pay and benefits through September 30 – and even take outside employment – while no longer having to perform federal duties in exchange for agreeing to resign.

The White House Office of Personnel Management declined to comment on Tuesday, referring to a memo it issued last week defending the legality of the program.

The senators cited a report that the Internal Revenue Service told employees who had opted into the program that they would need to work through May 15 because they are “essential” to this year’s tax filing season.

The senators also sought details on the number of employees excluded from the deferred resignation program.

The White House – after first offering the program to air traffic controllers and federal airport security officers – later said public safety workers are ineligible.

Unions have urged their members not to accept the buyout offer – saying the Trump administration cannot be trusted to honor it – but more than 65,000 federal employees had signed up for the buyouts as of Monday, according to a White House official.

Current spending laws expire on March 14 and there is no guarantee that salaries would be funded beyond that point, the senators noted.

On Monday, a U.S. judge maintained his block on the deferred retirement offer.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Marguerita Choy)