South MS has 17,000 federal employees. Here’s how Trump’s buyout offer will affect them

The Trump administration’s offer to let more than 2 million government employees resign with eight months of pay could shrink the Mississippi Coast’s federal work force even though military personnel who make up most of it are exempt from the proposal.

The step could affect thousands of workers in South Mississippi from the Stennis Space Center to the Keesler Air Force base. The Office of Personnel Management, a human resources agency for the federal government, emailed the offer last month and said workers could reply with the word “resign” and be paid through September. Employees can accept the offer until Thursday.

The email sent to workers says those who stay should commit to a workforce of employees who are “reliable, loyal, trustworthy, and who strive for excellence in their daily work.” It also says workers must return to offices five days a week.

“We think a very substantial number of people will not show up to work, and therefore our government will get smaller and more efficient,” President Donald Trump told reporters. “That’s what we’ve been looking to do for many, many decades.”

The Office of Personnel Management said military personnel, postal workers and people in immigration enforcement and national security jobs would not receive the offer. The email sent to all other employees encouraged those who accept resignations to find new roles in the private sector.

Offer extends to civilians at Keesler, Seabee base

There are 17,126 federal government workers in South Mississippi and the Pine Belt, according to the Congressional Research Service.

About 5 percent of employees in the Coast’s congressional district work for the federal government. The area also has the largest share of federal workers in the state. That is because of two military bases: the Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi and the Naval Construction Battalion Center, or Seabee base, in Gulfport.

The Keesler Air Force Base has 2,193 civil service employees who received the Office of Personnel Management’s email with information about how to resign, according to Capt. Paige Skinner, a spokesperson for the 81st Training Wing at Keesler. Those employees work in roles across the base, including as instructors, in media relations and in squadrons that help with everything from airmen’s health and morale to managing time cards, schedules and finances.

The Seabee base has about 1,000 civilian employees, according to Military OneSource, an online directory with information about U.S. military bases. Becky Shaw, a public affairs officer at the Seabee base, said all federal civilian employees on the base have received an email offering the chance to resign. Civilians work across the base in roles including public affairs, at the visitors center and as firefighters.

But Shaw said it was unclear how many civilians on the base are truly eligible for the offer because it is so new. Any civilian employee can apply for the offer, she said, but the base has not received guidance on who can resign under it.

Both bases also have thousands of active duty employees who are exempt from the offer.

Impact across South MS

The Department of Veterans Affairs has also said it will honor the offer. All employees there have received the offer but the agency may reject resignations from employees who work in health care, law enforcement or public safety roles, Military.com reported.

It is unclear how the offer will affect Veterans Affairs services on the Coast, including the Biloxi VA medical center. But employees there could choose to resign. The Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System has about 2,175 employees, according to a 2023 inspection report by the agency’s office of inspector general.

The resignation offer is also an “an ongoing option” for some at NASA’s Stennis Space Center, said C. Lacy Thompson, the center’s news chief. There are over 50 federal, state, academic, public and private aerospace, technology and research organizations at Stennis that employ over 5,000 people.

The offer could disrupt services from food stamps to tax returns to air travel, depending on how many workers resign. The Dan M. Russell Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Gulfport is a federal building, and the Social Security Administration has offices in Gulfport and Moss Point. The FBI has a satellite offices in Gulfport and Pascagoula, and the Drug Enforcement Administration has a Gulfport office. It is unclear if those agencies fall under the offer’s national security exemption.

Opponents are raising questions about whether the plan is legal. Some Democrats have urged employees not to take the offer out of concern that payment may not follow through. The federal government is funded only through March 14. The Office of Personnel Management is insisting employees who resign under the offer by Thursday will get paid.

The Office of Personnel Management said it could not guarantee that positions will remain even if employees choose to stay. It added: “Should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity and will be afforded the protections in place for such positions.”

This story was originally published February 5, 2025 at 5:00 AM.