A report released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reveals that federal agencies paid out nearly $7 billion to employees who were not performing work duties during the first two years of the Trump administration. According to the findings, the use of paid leave among federal workers increased by 435 percent during this period.

The GAO report suggests that this significant rise in paid leave was a byproduct of administrative efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce. By utilizing paid leave as a mechanism to encourage employees to leave their positions, agencies effectively kept these individuals on the payroll without requiring them to report for duty. The report highlights the financial implications of these personnel management strategies, noting the substantial cost to taxpayers. While the report documents the scale of the payments, it raises questions regarding the efficiency of using paid leave as a tool for workforce reduction. The findings have drawn attention to how federal agencies manage staffing transitions and the associated budgetary impacts during changes in administration.