Federal workers are not appearing to take offers for early resignation, as the deadline to accept has been pushed back until a judge decides the offer’s legality.
Teton County’s reaction is in-line with the national trend, where initial reports show far fewer accepting the offer than the Trump administration hoped.
NPR reports that as of late last week, about 65,000 or 3% of federal workers nationwide have taken the resignation offer. The Trump Administration sent a memo via email to over 2 million federal workers late last month, baiting them to resign by Feb. 6.
In Teton County, some close to the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service, two of the largest employers of at least 500 federal workers, say most are not accepting the offer.
Sarah Lundstrum works for the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group for national parks.
“There’s just this overarching feeling of confusion and dread you get when you just don’t know what’s going to happen,” Lundstrom said.
Throughout her two-decade career, she’s never felt such a turbulent transition between administrations. She doesn’t know how many have accepted but said she’s heard of a few who were close to retirement anyway.
“We can’t say how many people will take that offer. And so we have no idea what the full impact on the park service and park operations will be,” Lundstrom said.
A forest service employee with over two decades of experience who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says he and most colleagues aren’t taking the offer because he wants a better retirement package and worries the resignation’s payout might not come.
Questions about if and how the money would come are at the core of the legal objection to Trump’s move.
Federal workers’ unions filed a lawsuit Feb. 4 claiming the administration’s “deferred resignation” program is illegal because it has not been authorized by Congress.
Other federal actions, like an executive order halting federal hiring, are also contributing to the uncertainty, according to Lundstrom. She says the National Park Service is typically hiring seasonal workers this time of year.
That means, she says, the parks could be understaffed as tourists flood entrances in summer.
“The fact that they can’t hire any seasonal staff could certainly impact summer visitors to parks and summer operations and parks,” Lundstrom said.
She says those impacts could mean longer lines, dirtier bathrooms, trash-littered areas and at worse, a less safe park.
The Forest Service and the National Park Service did not respond to KHOL by press time.
