Washington, USA:
A judge on Thursday cut the size of the US government by suspending a scheme that billionaire Elon Musk made the ringleader and encouraging federal workers to quit large-scale acquisitions .
A federal judge in Massachusetts ordered a temporary injunction at the deadline for the plan given by masks for more than 2 million government employees (midnight Thursday). The offer was to quit on 8 months' salary or risk fired at a future ull.
The deadline has now been extended to Monday, when US District Judge George O'Toole will hold a hearing on the merits of the lawsuit brought by the union, U.S. media reported.
Musk, the richest man in the world and the biggest donor of President Donald Trump, is responsible for a free organization called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which aims to become government.
More than 40,000 staff have accepted the acquisition agreement so far, according to White House Press Director Karoline Leavitt. This is a relatively small number.
The union, which represents around 800,000 civil servants and Congressional Democrats, resists the plan and challenges the legality of the threat of laying off civil servants.
But the broader budget cut campaign, which was fanned out by the invitation of anti-government workers from Trump and his aides, has sought to create a massive sector and institution that has run everything from education to national intelligence for decades. It's already been a massive confusion.
USAID, the government's humanitarian agency, has been crippled and has been ordered to waste foreign staff on their homes and organizational programs every day, and often inaccurately, by the White House and right-wing media. .
Union officials reported that the agency's global workforce will be reduced from over 10,000 to less than 300.
“We will ultimately have to stop the distribution of food, as there are no bodies outdoors to make sure the food is actually being distributed,” said Randychester, vice president of the American Foreign Affairs Association. He told reporters.
Democratic forward Robin Thurston, who sued the Trump administration for a massive layoff at USAID, said in a “clear violation of fundamental constitutional principles regarding separation of power,” “an illegality of this institution by the Trump Vance administration.” He criticized the seizure.
Trump has also repeatedly said he wants to close the Department of Education. The resignation was further extended to the CIA.
Officials from the agency that manages government property said real estate portfolios should be reduced by “at least 50%” except for the Department of Defense buildings.
Leavitt told reporters that federal workers should “accept a very generous offer” of their postponed resignation.
She said people who “want to tear the American people apart” would find “competent” alternatives.
In the controversy swirling around the Musk program, it is how much access does the South African-born tycoon have to access secret government data, including the entire Treasury payment system.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent told Bloomberg Television Thursday that there was “a lot of misinformation” and that access to such data was only given to two Treasury employees working with Musk. Ta.
Bessent says these employees have “read-only” access. This means that the data could not be changed.
One of these two has resigned, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday after it was revealed on social media that it advocated racism and eugenics.
“Cold” or a big “scam”?
Questions have been raging about the acquisition, including whether Trump has a legal right to make the offer and whether the terms will be respected.
The plan was sent to most vast federal governments and was first announced in an email entitled “Folk in the Road.” This is the same phrase as the note Musk sent to employees on Twitter when he bought and renamed the social media platform in 2022. x.
Musk says that paid departures will “get cold watching movies while you've always wanted to take the holidays you want or simply watch movies and receive the full government benefits.”
The union warns that the contract may not be worth it without Congress signing the use of federal funds.
“Federal employees should not be fooled by the smooth talk of unelected billionaires and their difficulties,” said Everett Kelly, president of the US Government's Large Federation of Governments (AFGE). Ta.
An employee of the U.S. Personnel Management, whose staff was placed in a key position by Musk, said the plan was to encourage resignation through “panic.”
“We are trying to instill panic, so people are trying to get people to get out the door and leave the government in a state of disability.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published by Syndicate Feed.)
