By Ed Mazza

(AP) – Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is warning federal employees not to cave to President Donald Trump’s offer of a buyout that would give workers about eight months’ salary if they leave their jobs next week.

“He’ll stiff you,” Kaine said on the Senate floor.

Contractors who’ve worked for Trump and Trump’s companies have frequently reported struggles getting paid. In 2016, USA Today reported on some 3,500 legal actions against Trump over pay disputes with contractors and others.

On the campaign trail, Trump would often muse out loud about not paying the people who set up his equipment when there were tech issues.

Now, Trump is offering to pay federal workers to leave ― but only if they act fast and resign next week.

“Don’t be fooled,” Kaine said. “He’s tricked hundreds of people with that offer. If you accept that offer and resign he’ll stiff you just like he stiffed the contractors.”

He added that Trump doesn’t have the authority to even make that offer ― and anyone who takes him up on it is taking a huge risk.

“There’s no budget line item to pay people who are not showing up for work,” Kaine said.

The offer, which was sent Tuesday by the Office of Personnel Management, also implied that workers who don’t take the offer could face layoffs as it warned that “the majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized.”

The email sent to millions of employees said those who leave their posts voluntarily will receive about eight months of salary, but they have to choose to do so by Feb. 6.

Trump has built a political career around promising to disrupt Washington, and vowed that his second administration would go far further in shaking up traditional political norms than his first did. Still, the repercussions of so many government workers being invited to leave their jobs were difficult to calculate.

Katie Miller, who serves on an advisory board to the Department of Government Efficiency, a special Trump administration department headed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and tasked with shrinking the size of government, posted on X, “This email is being sent to more than TWO MILLION federal employees.”

The federal government employed more than 3 million people as of November last year, which accounted for nearly 1.9% of the nation’s entire civilian workforce, according to the Pew Research Center. The average tenure for a federal employee is nearly 12 years, according to a Pew analysis of data from OPM.


Even a fraction of the workforce accepting buyouts could send shockwaves through the economy and trigger widespread disruptions throughout society as a whole, triggering wide-ranging — and as yet unknowable — implications for the delivery, timeliness and effectiveness of federal services across the nation.

Untold numbers of front-line health workers in the Veterans Affairs Department, officials who process loans for homebuyers or small businesses, and contractors who help procure the next generation of military weaponry could all head for the exits at once. It could also mean losing experienced food inspectors and scientists who test the water supply — while disrupting everything from air travel and consumer product protections.

In response, American Federation of Government Employees union President Everett Kelley said it should not be viewed as voluntary buyouts, but pressuring workers not considered loyal to the new administration to vacate their jobs.

“Purging the federal government of dedicated career federal employees will have vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government,” Kelley said in a statement. “Between the flurry of anti-worker executive orders and policies, it is clear that the Trump administration’s goal is to turn the federal government into a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to.”

In its emailed memo detailing its plan, OPM lists four directives that it says Trump is mandating for the federal workforce going forward — including that most workers return to their offices full-time.