An $11 billion price tag gets attention. Understanding what government lost in the process may take a lot longer
An $11 billion price tag gets attention. Understanding what government lost in the process may take a lot longer  
Podcast: The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton
Published On: Wed Jul 29 2026
Description: Public Citizen has released a new analysis estimating that the deferred resignation program will cost taxpayers at least $11 billion. The report examines where that money went and what agencies may have lost as experienced employees left government service. That degraded mission performance is something much harder to put a price tag on. Here to walk through the analysis is Doug Pasternak, research director of Public Citizen’s Trump Accountability Project.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.