A new data tool from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service estimates that the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal workforce cost nearly $71 billion in economic damage, including about $4.5 billion tied to the administration’s deferred resignation program.
The Cost to Our Economy tool provides an overview of the administration’s cost-cutting efforts, but the partnership said the estimate is not comprehensive because some costs are not yet known or measurable.
“This is the cost of chaos – the chaos of mismanaging the federal workforce and mishandling federal grants and contracts,” Partnership for Public Service president and CEO Max Stier said in an April 9 press release.
“Rather than rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, the Trump administration has done the exact opposite and shifted an enormous burden onto taxpayers and undermined the institutions that serve them,” Stier said.
The deferred resignation program, or DRP, accounts for roughly $4.5 billion of the total, according to the partnership. Under that program, federal employees could resign while continuing to receive pay for several months without working.
OPM guidance issued in January 2025 said the government-wide program allowed participating employees to submit a resignation effective Sept. 30, 2025.
According to the latest data from the Office of Personnel Management, 138,541 federal employees accepted the DRP offer.
The partnership’s tool also estimates that the administrative cost of reinstating terminated employees tops $12.1 million after agencies moved to rehire some workers to meet operational needs or comply with court orders. In addition, severance pay for employees affected by reductions in force cost an estimated $763.9 million between January 2025 and January 2026.
“While government reforms, including strategic workforce cuts, can make government more effective when thoughtfully executed, the Trump administration’s haphazard approach to cost-cutting is inflicting significant economic damage,” Stier said.
“Congress should reassert its constitutional oversight over the administration to protect the nonpartisan civil service, compel the release of appropriated federal assistance, and stop this damage from compounding further,” he added.