Friend,
I wanted to reach out with some information about the Trump administration’s “Fork in the Road” offer, which claims to give federal workers the option of a “deferred resignation” that would allegedly allow workers to “retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload and be exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until September 30.”
First, there is no guarantee workers who accept this offer will get paid through September 30 as promised. Not only is there no funding for that time frame right now, but I personally am deeply skeptical of any offer from a President like Donald Trump who has so consistently shown he will try to stiff workers if it furthers his personal goals and ambitions.
Being given only 9 days decide is a short amount of time to consider all of the financial impacts of potentially accepting the offer—including if and where you’d be able to find a new job, how this would impact benefits like Thrift Savings Plans, and more. And we know scammers often pressure people to act immediately.
Additionally, the information being provided includes a lot of caveats. It claims you can rescind your resignation if you change your mind—but that your job may no longer exist. It claims that you aren’t expected to work if you accept the offer—expect in rare cases determined by each individual agency. It claims that you can stay in your current role—but there’s no guarantee your position will be needed.
The lack of clear information and resources about exactly what will be allowed is rightfully creating confusion for the more than 56,000 federal workers across Washington state. To me, this leaves far too many questions unanswered.
And as the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee and the one who helps write our government funding bills, it’s important you know that, right now, the federal government is only funded through March 14, 2025. At this point, there is no funding allocated to agencies to pay staff for this offer.
Finally, I want to express a real gratitude for the federal workers who power so many essential services provided by our government. The American government is not Twitter—people rely on our federal workers and sometimes their work can be the difference between life and death. Federal workers help inspect meat processing facilities, they make sure baby formula is safe, they approve lifesaving drugs and treatments, they manage air traffic, help ensure clean drinking water, and so much else.
Where this administration continues to show outright hostility toward many of our federal workers, I will continue to fight for federal workers—everyone from Hanford workers to the people who are making sure you get your Social Security check.
Thank you,
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Patty Murray
United States Senator for Washington state
