Deadline For Federal Workers, Reaction To Trump's Gaza Plan, Future Of US Foreign Aid
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good morning to you you said good morning a martinez didn't say good morning he's too good for me oh morning no no i say hello because you don't want to presume it is a good morning for you or me do you say hola if you're speaking in spanish hola hello you don't say buenos dias um buenos dias i've had a turn on that one because it's like how dare you tell me to have a good day You don't want to presume to instruct other people to be happy.
Then I'm responsible if they don't have a good day. Oh. And I've got to wait until the end of the day to hear if it was a good day. No, I don't want that kind of pressure, Steve. Okay. Next time I see you, I'm just going to say, Diaz. Diaz.
Federal workers face a deadline today to take an offer to resign. I don't know anybody who's considering taking it who wasn't already planning on retiring.
So says an employee at the Labor Department. What's the administration's next move?
I'm Ian Martinez, that's Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News. When President Trump made a surprise declaration about Gaza, he also promised an announcement about the West Bank. What are people thinking there? Our correspondent is in the West Bank to find out.
Also, how is the U.S. competing for influence in the world as the administration tries to shut down a foreign aid agency? The administration told workers for USAID they should all return from abroad.
We just lost the battle. It's not because we were fighting and we lost. We took our troops and we went home.
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This is decision day for millions of federal employees who find themselves on a so-called fork in the road.
That is the phrase the Trump administration put into an email telling federal workers they can stay or go. Their unions have said it's not really much of a decision, asserting that the offer that looks like a buyout really isn't.
NPR labor correspondent Andrew Hsu joins us now. Andrew, can we ballpark how many federal employees have told the administration that they're going to quit?
Yeah, well, last night we were hearing it was more than 40,000 or about 2% of the federal workforce and growing. Now, A, remember this offer to resign by today and still keep your pay and benefits until the end of September? It's gone out to more than 2 million federal employees, including people in the VA and the FDA, the Department of Education, even the CIA. So you can imagine these numbers could climb. But that said, a lot of people seem to be wary. I met a federal employee, David Casserly, at a rally outside the Labor Department. He's worked there for three and a half years. And I asked him if he's considered resigning. And here's what he said.
No, no, never. I don't know anybody who's considering taking it who wasn't already planning on retiring.
And I've also heard that people who have been fully remote and can't or don't want to comply with Trump's demand that all federal workers return to the office full time, that they are also considering taking this deal.
Okay. Now, for the federal employees who do accept, I mean, what exactly are they agreeing to?
Well, it's really hard to answer that with any precision because so many different versions of the deal have been sent out since last week. So the first email that went out nine days ago only said that people who agree to resign now don't have to comply with the return to office orders. Many people took that to mean they'd still have to work, but they could work from home. But then soon after, the Office of Personnel Management put out an FAQ that said, no, no, you're not expected to work at all and you'll still get paid. And then this week, agencies sent out these sample contract agreements that changed the script again and said, actually, you do have to work through the end of February.
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