$117,000 Per Resignation: The Real Cost of the Federal DRP

Last Updated: July 1, 2026 Reading Time: 8 min

The government paid roughly 129,000 federal employees not to work for 5 to 9 months, and the bill lands somewhere between $11 billion and $15 billion. That works out to about $117,000 per departure at the high end. Nobody else has published the per-employee math, so we did.

Key Takeaways

  • GAO's June report (GAO-26-108583) confirms 129,000 DRP separations and a net federal workforce decline of 256,000 (11.3%) between December 2024 and January 2026.
  • The cost estimate comes from Public Citizen, not GAO: $11.1 billion to $15.1 billion in pay and benefits for employees on administrative leave, "usually 5 to 9 months."
  • Per-employee cost: roughly $79,000 to $117,000, depending on which estimate and denominator you use. The statutory VSIP buyout would have cost $25,000 per person.
  • A max-VSIP alternative would have cost about $3.2 billion, roughly one-fifth of the DRP's high-end price. The DRP ran about 4.6x more expensive per separation.
  • 83% of all separations were voluntary. This was a paid exodus, not a layoff wave.

The Numbers, and Who Actually Produced Them

Two documents got merged in most coverage, and the distinction matters if you're citing this.

GAO-26-108583 (released June 17, 2026) is the official workforce count: 22 major agencies, December 2024 through January 2026. It found 378,000 separations, 127,000 hires, and a net decline from 2.27 million to 2.01 million employees. It counted 129,000 DRP departures and described the program's paid administrative leave as lasting "usually 5 to 9 months." GAO published no cost figure.

Public Citizen's analysis (June 18, 2026) of OPM data supplied the dollars: $11.1 billion at the low end, $15.1 billion at the high end, covering salary and benefits paid to DRP participants while they weren't working. FedWeek's "up to $15B" headline traces there, not to GAO. Back in April, the first estimate put the figure at $4.5 billion; the newer analyses roughly tripled it as the full leave durations became visible.

Put them together and you get the table below.

The Per-Employee Math

Scenario Total cost Divided by Per employee
High estimate, per DRP separation $15.1B 129,000 (GAO) $117,054
High estimate, per enrolled participant $15.1B 139,628 (OPM) $108,134
Low estimate, per enrolled participant $11.1B 139,628 (OPM) $79,494

For context, the government already had a tool for paying people to leave: the Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment, capped at $25,000 since roughly 1993. If all 129,000 DRP separations had instead taken a maximum VSIP, the total would have been about $3.2 billion.

That makes the DRP roughly 4.6 times more expensive per separation than the statutory buyout, with the difference paid out as months of salary and benefits for employees who had already agreed to leave. (Whether VSIP alone could have induced 129,000 departures is a fair counterargument; the $25,000 cap is widely seen as too low, which is what H.R. 7256 tries to fix.)

Where the Workforce Actually Shrank

The 11.3% headline hides enormous agency-level variance:

Agency Change Source basis
Education -45.6% (4,273 → 2,326) GAO direct
GSA -36.8% GAO direct
HUD -30.5% GAO direct
Energy -29.4% GAO direct
DoD civilian -10.7% (778,188 → 695,248) GAO direct
DHS -1% GAO direct
USAID ~-95% Derived from OPM FedScope
SBA ~-37% Derived from OPM FedScope
OPM ~-33.9% Derived from OPM FedScope
NSF ~-32.5% Derived from OPM FedScope

DoD deserves its own line: 59% of its second-half 2025 separations went through the DRP, against 34% government-wide. The Pentagon leaned on the program harder than anyone, which is part of why GAO separately dinged DOD for never assessing what the cuts did to capability.

We track the running agency-by-agency picture in our ranked workforce cuts analysis and the State of the Federal Workforce report.

What This Means If You're Still In

Three practical readings for current feds:

  1. The voluntary era is winding down; the fiscal deadline isn't. 83% of separations so far were voluntary. But agencies that still have unmet reduction targets when FY2027 starts October 1 face pressure to use involuntary tools instead. Know your baseline with the Severance Pay Calculator before anyone hands you paperwork.
  2. Don't expect another DRP at these terms. A program that cost 4.6x the statutory buyout, drew a public $15 billion price tag, and triggered congressional scrutiny is unlikely to return in the same form. The cheaper tools (VERA, VSIP at $25,000, and RIFs) are what remain. If you're eligible, check the VERA Eligibility Checker and our fall 2026 agency tracker.
  3. Backfills aren't coming. With replacement hiring running at roughly 1 hire per 4 departures, the workload from 256,000 departed employees is being redistributed to those who stayed.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much did the Deferred Resignation Program cost?

Between $11.1 billion and $15.1 billion, per Public Citizen's analysis of OPM data. The money went to salary and benefits for employees on administrative leave, usually 5 to 9 months. GAO's report documents the headcount but includes no cost figure.

How many federal employees took the DRP?

GAO counted 129,000 DRP separations through January 2026. OPM enrollment records show about 139,600 participants total.

What does that work out to per employee?

About $117,000 per separation at the high-end estimate, or about $79,000 per participant at the low end. The standard VSIP buyout is capped at $25,000.

How much has the federal workforce shrunk overall?

A net 256,000 employees (11.3%) across 22 major agencies from December 2024 to January 2026, with 83% of separations voluntary.

Which agencies shrank the most?

Education (-45.6%), GSA (-36.8%), HUD (-30.5%), and Energy (-29.4%) per GAO. FedScope-derived figures also show USAID near -95% and SBA near -37%. DHS was nearly flat at -1%.

Sources: GAO-26-108583, Public Citizen: the $11 billion resignation program, FedWeek coverage, DefenseScoop on the Pentagon numbers, NARFE analysis.