U.S. District Judge George O'Toole prevented the agency from implementing the program's deadline during a brief hearing held hours before federal workers were required to notify O

Eligible federal workers must decide by 11:59 pm ET on Thursday whether to take the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer, which will allow them to leave their jobs but be paid through the end of September.

The administration set a deadline for Thursday at 11:59 p.m. Eastern for employees to decide on the offer. But a federal judge in Massachusetts paused the deadline until at least a hearing set for Monday at 2 p.