Judge pauses Trump federal employee buyout deadline pending court hearing

A federal judge paused Thursday’s deadline for federal employees to accept the Trump administration’s offer of buyouts.

The judge said he would hear arguments at a court hearing on Monday on the merits of a lawsuit challenging the legality of the buyout.

The order Thursday came as more than 40,000 people — about 2% of the federal workforce — have accepted the offer.

The Trump administration earlier Thursday in a mass email to federal employees said that the deadline for accepting the buyout offer will not be extended beyond 11:59 p.m. ET Thursday.

The offer, laid out in the so-called “Fork Directive,” purports to allow employees to submit a deferred resignation, in which they will no longer have to work but will be paid with benefits until the end of September.

A group of unions representing federal workers on Tuesday sued over the program.

The lawsuit says “basic information is absent” from the offer, including whether the Office of Personnel Management “can (or will) honor the financial commitment for agencies across government when Congress has appropriated no funds for this purpose, and the statutory basis and appropriation for this promise remain unclear.”

The offer is “also contrary to the law,” the suit alleges.

“To leverage employees into accepting the offer and resigning, the Fork Directive threatens employees with eventual job loss in the event that they refuse to resign,” the suit says.

The plaintiffs are asking a judge to declare that the offer “as issued” is not legal, and remand the directive back to OPM “to provide a reasoned basis for the Directive and extend the deadline accordingly, and until such time as Defendants provide an adequate justification for the Directive.”

This is developing news. Check back for updates.