Judge blocks Trump’s buyout plan for federal employees as more than two million affected; unions challenge legality

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Stephen Butterfield of D.C. holds a sign outside the FBI headquarters showing his support for the FBI and Department of Justice employees, days after the Trump administration launched a sweeping round of cuts at the Justice Department, in Washington February 3, 2025. — Reuters pic

BOSTON, Feb 11 — A US judge kept his block on President Donald Trump’s buyout plan for federal employees in place yesterday while he considers whether to impose it for a longer period of time.

The decision by US District Judge George O’Toole in Boston prevents Trump’s administration from implementing the buyout plan for now, giving a temporary victory to labour unions that have sued to stop it entirely.

More than 2 million federal civilian employees had faced a midnight deadline to accept the proposal. It is unclear when O’Toole will rule on the request by the unions.

The buyout effort is part of a far-reaching plan by Trump and his allies to reduce the size and rein in the actions of the federal bureaucracy. Trump, who returned to the presidency on January 20, has accused the federal workforce of undercutting his agenda during his first term in office, from 2017-2021.

Unions have urged their members not to accept the buyout offer — saying Trump’s administration cannot be trusted to honour it — but about 65,000 federal employees had signed up for the buyouts as of Friday, according to a White House official.

Reuters has been unable to independently verify that number, which does not include a breakdown of workers from each agency.

The offer promises to pay employees their regular salaries and benefits until October without requiring them to work, but that may not be ironclad. Current spending laws expire on March 14 and there is no guarantee that salaries would be funded beyond that point.

At a court hearing, US Justice Department attorney Eric Hamilton called the buyout plan a “humane off-ramp” for those frustrated by Trump’s decision to reduce the size of the workforce and end the ability of many of them to work from home.

But a lawyer for the unions said the plan had been carried out in a “slap dash” fashion with little regard to how it might disrupt operations at agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“They failed to consider the continued functioning of government,” lawyer Elena Goldstein said.

The administration had initially proposed a deadline of last Thursday before O’Toole, an appointee of Democratic former President Bill Clinton, extended it so he could consider the case.

Agencies disrupted

Trump has tasked Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, with overseeing the purge of federal employees through his “Department of Government Efficiency,” which is not an actual government agency.

Musk’s actions have sown panic among federal workers and prompted public protests. His actions also have led to a flood of calls to US lawmakers by voters worried about the access that Musk’s team has been given to sensitive information in government computer systems that contain data on federal payments to Americans and personal details of federal workers.

Musk aides have taken up senior positions at key government agencies while the billionaire has pushed for the dismantling of others, including USAID, the US humanitarian and development aid agency.

Another Trump lieutenant, White House budget director Russell Vought, has ordered the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, an independent federal agency created after the 2008 global financial crisis, to cease its activities.

Opposition Democrats and federal employee unions have decried the power Trump has bestowed on South African-born Musk, who appears largely unaccountable except to Trump himself. Trump, who yesterday signed an executive order to eliminate the Federal Executive Institute, which provides leadership training to federal workers, has said Musk does not operate unilaterally but only with the president’s blessing.

Several lawsuits

The unions and Democratic attorneys general have brought lawsuits challenging Trump’s rapid remaking of government and won some initial victories. A union that represents CFPB workers has filed a lawsuit seeking to block Vought’s actions, one of several legal challenges that Trump’s administration now faces.

Democratic attorneys general from 22 US states filed a lawsuit yesterday in Boston challenging sharp cuts to federal grant funding for universities, medical centers and other research institutions by the Trump administration. A judge temporarily blocked the cuts.

An effort to hollow out the US Agency for International Development is partially on hold after a judge’s ruling.

In a court filing yesterday evening, the administration for the first time detailed a legal argument for its authority to gut USAID. It said the president’s power over foreign affairs is “vast and generally unreviewable,” and it was up to Congress, not the courts, to push back if it believed the president had violated the law. Placing employees on administrative leave was a “personnel question” for which it did not have to give any reason.

Trump’s effort to freeze trillions of dollars in federal loans, grants and other financial assistance has also been paused in a separate case. A federal judge in Rhode Island yesterday ruled that the administration must restore all domestic funding while he considers the case.

On Saturday, a judge temporarily blocked Musk’s entity from accessing government systems used to process trillions of dollars in payments at the Treasury Department. — Reuters