A federal judge in Boston extended a temporary restraining order Monday against the Trump administration’s mass buyout plan for federal workers.

District Judge George O’Toole is considering an injunction against the Trump administration’s Jan. 28 “Fork in the Road” initiative that offered buyouts to 2 million federal workers. So far, approximately 65,000 federal employees have accepted the offer, which provides eight months of pay and benefits to those who quit now.

A group of labor unions for federal employees is seeking to stop the buyout initiative. They sued the Office of Personnel Management in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts over an “arbitrary and capricious” directive offering early retirement plans to dramatically downsize the federal workforce.

“We continue to believe this program violates the law,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees.

The unions are directing workers not to accept the buyouts. They organized a rally Tuesday near the Capitol to protest the buyout offer, which they say is an attempt to “illegally dismantle critical federal agencies by purging staff and cutting funding.”

After an hourlong hearing Monday, Judge O’Toole did not indicate when he would rule on the matter or how long the pause would last.

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Federal employees were initially given a Feb. 6 deadline to accept the buyout. Those who did not resign were ordered to return to work in the office full time.

Court challenges have been filed over other Trump initiatives to shrink the size and cost of government.

A federal judge said Monday that the Trump administration was defying a court order to restart billions of dollars in federal spending frozen by the White House.

In 1995, President Clinton offered buyouts that paid up to $25,000 to each federal worker outside the Defense Department. More than 100,000 government employees accepted the offer.

Mr. Clinton first received congressional approval for his buyout plan. He said the buyouts were targeted at duplicative or unneeded positions.

“Looking back, I can safely say that our buyout program has been a huge success. It achieved what we had hoped: to help us cut the workforce in a fiscally responsible and humane way,” Mr. Clinton said.

• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.