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WASHINGTON - Today, Ranking Member Mark Takano made the following statement regarding the White House Office of Personnel Management’s email offering “buyouts” to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees.
“Elon Musk thinks you are stupid and won’t see through his deceptive and fraudulent “buyout” offer. VA employees should ignore his email and send it to the trash bin. VA employees, thousands of whom are veterans themselves, keep the largest integrated healthcare system in the country running and provide world-class care and benefits to veterans each and every day. The Trump Administration is playing a dangerous game with your livelihoods and veterans’ lives. You should view Donald Trump’s Office of Personnel Management telling you to take the offer to ’travel, relax at home, or explore new opportunities’ while receiving government pay and benefits like the scam that it is. The President has no authority from Congress to offer a mass buyout of this nature to federal workers.
Elon Musk said the same thing to Twitter employees, and he scammed them too. He didn’t pay any of the severance he promised them. Civil servants are his next target, and Donald Trump is egging him on.
Through these buyouts, Trump is admitting he does not have the power to unilaterally shrink the federal workforce in the ways he attempted in his various day one Executive Orders that are already being challenged in court. To fulfill his mission to destroy the government, he is instead trying to trick federal employees into being pawns in his scheme. Don’t take the bait.
If the first ten days of the Trump-Vance Administration have shown us anything, it’s that it is going to be a long four years of fighting back against their attacks on the federal workforce. We need VA employees to stay in the fight with us and continue to serve America’s veterans as best as they can. Congressional Democrats have your backs, and we will continue to challenge and fight all of Trump’s efforts to undermine your dedication to serving our heroes.”
Background:
On January 28, 2025, the Office of Personnel Management began sending messages to federal employees, urging them to resign if they cannot commit to returning to in-person work and embracing the Trump Administration’s “enhanced standards of suitability and conduct.” Between now and February 6, 2025, VA employees are expected to decide whether to accept an “8-month severance package” or resign from their positions.
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