FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, December 30, 2025
Contact:
Peter Jenkins (202) 265-4189 [email protected]; Jeff Ruch (510) 213-7028 [email protected]
At Least $10 Billion Was Spent on Paying Federal Staff to Do Nothing in 2025
Trump’s Profligate Use of Paid Administrative Leave Violated Legal Limits
Washington, DC — The Trump administration’s continuous use of mass administrative leave – paying federal employees to not work – in 2025 was illegal and extremely wasteful, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which is seeking a review of this practice by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) under the Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA) and the Administrative Leave Act (ALA).
The ALA limits imposition of paid leave to no more than 10 workdays in any calendar year with very limited exceptions, yet tens of thousands of federal employees remained on paid leave for many months – and many are still on it. The ADA forbids obligating or expending funds beyond the purpose for which they were appropriated.
In its letter to the GAO, PEER estimates that more than 154,000 federal employees were put on paid leave over the course of the year, making up nearly 7% of the entire federal civilian workforce and costing taxpayers approximately $10 billion. PEER’s letter notes that Senator Richard Blumenthal’s staff of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations made similar calculations and predicted an even higher approximation of taxpayer funds wasted: more than $20 billion.
“Spending over $10 billion of taxpayer money to prevent people from working is a hell of a way to run a railroad,” remarked PEER Senior Counsel Peter Jenkins. “Ironically, this outrageous waste of human capital – when key federal agencies such as the National Park Service were horribly understaffed – was done in the name of government efficiency.”
The largest use of administrative leave was for deferred retirement agreements that were repeatedly offered under various names, in which civil servants who agreed to retire – often under duress, such as threats of mass firings – were then put on paid administrative leave lasting for months. Trump’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) contended that the 10-day leave limit did not apply to those who had signed retirement agreements, although the ALA makes no such distinction.
The GAO plays a central role in enforcing the ADA. Violators can be removed from office, fined, or even criminally prosecuted. Paying 150,000 civil servants not to work for months on end throughout 2025 was neither within any Congressional appropriation nor allowed by the ALA or any other law. PEER’s letter to the GAO cites key support for that point from legal scholars.
“President Trump does not have the power to place federal employees in indefinite limbo,” Jenkins added. “This illegal use of taxpayer dollars must not continue in 2026.”
PEER helped persuade Congress to enact the ALA in 2016 because agencies had used administrative leave to punish many PEER clients, including whistleblowers, by leaving them on involuntary leave for months or even years without recourse, thereby destroying their careers. However, it became clear from its first days that the second Trump administration had no intention of abiding by the ALA’s strict limits on paid leave.
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Read the PEER Letter to GAO and supporting documents
See average federal employee salary
Look at the role GAO plays in enforcing the Anti-Deficiency Act
Revisit PEER suit vs OPM over ALA foot-dragging
View PEER protest to Trump OPM over misuse of administrative leave
PEER protects public employees who protect our environment. We are a service organization for environmental and public health professionals, land managers, scientists, enforcement officers and other civil servants dedicated to upholding environmental laws and values. We work with current and former federal, state, local and tribal employees.
