FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, November 3, 2025
CONTACT
Kyla Bennett [email protected], (508) 230-9933
Unpaid Federal Employees Denied Time Off to Vote
Trump Reversal of Time-Off Policy Aggravates Shutdown Inequities
Washington, DC — In this upcoming election, federal employees will no longer get up to four-hours of leave to vote or work as a volunteer poll-worker. A Trump edict denying paid leave even applies to employees already working without pay during the current government shutdown, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
On November 4th, Virginia and New Jersey will hold statewide elections for their governors and state legislatures. Meanwhile, California is holding a special election to vote on a congressional redistricting plan to counter a Trump-directed redistricting campaign in red states to safeguard Republican seats in a closely divided House of Representatives.
“Public servants’ exercise of their rights as citizens to vote is something which should be embraced, not impeded,” stated PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse. “Federal employees deemed essential during this prolonged shutdown and working extended shifts, sometimes without pay, should not also be forced to take unpaid leave to vote.”
The prior policy was that all federal employees could take up to four hours of paid administrative leave to vote or serve as a volunteer nonpartisan poll-worker. This common practice was codified as an official government-wide policy under a 2021 Biden Executive Order. But on the first day of his second term, Trump issued an Executive Order rescinding a score of Biden-era orders, including that one.
However, Trump did not replace the Biden order. Instead, this March he issued another Executive Order directing all agencies to “cease actions implementing” Biden’s order and to report by mid-June what they were doing to cease implementation.
The result is an agency-by-agency hodgepodge of orders that are inconsistent and difficult to understand. For example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s order advised its employees that they are “generally not entitled administrative leave to vote” but leave would be granted under “limited circumstances” such as when “there is no reasonable opportunity for an employee to vote outside of their regular work hours.”
By contrast, U.S. Forest Service employees have been told that they are “not authorized to use administrative leave to vote or participate in voting related activities” without exception. No such edict has been issued in other U.S. Department of Agriculture agencies. Meanwhile, over at the Department of the Interior, the guidance permitting paid leave has been removed from its website with no replacement policy displayed.
“Accommodation of employees’ ability to vote should not vary from agency to agency or differ within bureaus of the same agency,” Whitehouse added. “Unfortunately, like many Trump initiatives, this new policy was neither well thought out nor well executed, while displaying an utter lack of class and respect for hard-working federal employees already under stress.”
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Note Trump EO rescinding Biden orders
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.
