A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s plan to push out federal employees by offering them financial incentives. The ruling came hours before the midnight deadline for workers to apply for the deferred resignation program,

The Trump administration issued an email blast on Jan. 28 giving most of the country’s 2.3 million eligible employees federal workers the option to resign with pay through Sept. 30. The deadline to decide on whether to accept the offer is Thursday.

The scheme is part of an ongoing effort by the new administration to slash the size of the federal bureaucracy.