Deferred resignation program offered federal buyouts with agencies instructed to treat non-acceptance as willingness to be terminated — pressuring mass voluntary departures.

Merit Systems Protection Board vacancies left thousands of federal whistleblower and Schedule F appeal cases in limbo — removing a key check on retaliatory firings.

OPM intensified deferred-resignation buyout pressure on career civil servants — offering exit packages while threatening RIFs for employees who declined, mirroring Project 2025 workforce purge tactics.

Merit Systems Protection Board backlog left thousands of federal employee appeals unresolved — including Schedule F reclassification challenges — without independent adjudication.