by Former Federal Employees, coming in 2026
Excerpts from some of the letters we have received
We are delighted and stunned to have received over 70 submissions to this project. As of May 1, 2026, we have closed the general submissions window. If you have already been in contact with us, we still wish to hear from you. We do ask that you get your document(s) to us ASAP. Please reach out to us at resignations at bicycle hyphen comics dot com .
Our team will be reaching out to all who submitted letters.
Over 150,000 people resigned from the federal government last year. Nothing like that has happened in the history of the United States.
The vast majority of those 150,000 workers opted for the DRP—the Deferred Resignation Program. Elon Musk ran a similar initiative when he took over at Twitter/X.
Over the course of 2025, many other federal employees, including thousands who didn’t take the DRP, found themselves in positions where they felt they had to resign. Some felt that policy shifts under the new administration went against their sense of the public good. Other workers received instructions that undermined Congressional oversight, violated public trust, or broke federal laws.
We are interested in what they had to say as they left.
In 2026, Bicycle Comics will publish a new anthology: a collection of federal resignation letters. We seek input from all executive branch departments and agencies, from the Department of Agriculture to the National Zoo.
Your resignation was a moment. Let’s preserve it as part of a historical record.
General submissions have closed
Notify me when the book comes out
| Department or Agency | Submissions |
|---|---|
| Agriculture | |
| Department of Agriculture (USDA) | 1 |
| Office of the Executive Secretariat | 1 |
| USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture | 1 |
| Commerce | |
| National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) | 2 |
| Defense | |
| Department of Defense | 1 |
| Energy | |
| Department of Energy | 2 |
| International Affairs | 1 |
| Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy | 1 |
| Health and Human Services | |
| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | 1 |
| Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Research | 1 |
| Food and Drug Administration (FDA) | 1 |
| National Cancer Institute | 1 |
| National Institute on Drug Abuse | 1 |
| National Institutes of Health (NIH) | 4 |
| Unaccompanied Children's Bureau | 1 |
| Homeland Security | |
| Customs and Border Protection | 1 |
| Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) | 4 |
| Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) | 1 |
| Refugee, Asylum and International Operations Directorate | 1 |
| Housing and Urban Development | |
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | 2 |
| Interior | |
| Bureau of Reclamation | 1 |
| Fish and Wildlife Service | 1 |
| National Park Service | 4 |
| Justice | |
| Department of Justice | 3 |
| Capitol Siege Section | 1 |
| Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section | 1 |
| Labor | |
| Department of Labor | 1 |
| State | |
| Counterterrorism Bureau | 1 |
| United States Agency for International Development (USAID) | 1 |
| Transportation | |
| Department of Transportation | 1 |
| Federal Highway Administration | 1 |
| Federal Transit Administration | 1 |
| Treasury | |
| Internal Revenue Service (IRS) | 1 |
| Veterans | |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | 4 |
| Independent Agencies | |
| Equal Employment Opportunity Commission | 1 |
| Federal Trade Commission (FTC) | 1 |
| General Services Administration | 2 |
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) | 1 |
| US Digital Service | 3 |
| Submissions are tallied once, at the most specific agency. So a resignation letter from an IRS agent would count as “IRS,” not “Treasury.” Figures are accurate as of mid-April 2026. Not all submitted letters will appear in the printed book. | |
Send a letter for consideration
1. They cut my email access, but I posted a goodbye message on social media. Does that count?
Yes, 100%, absolutely. If you sent an email to your coworkers or posted a goodbye on LinkedIn when you left, that counts. Send it in!
2. I just filled out a form, then I told my manager I was taking DRP. Can I be in the book?
Maybe. If you have anything written, or a screenshot, we'll take a look.
3. I was RIF'd. Can I be in the book?
This book will focus on resignations and retirements. We know that whole departments got cut, and we're so sorry you got RIF'd.
4. I resigned last week. Can I be in the book?
We'd be delighted to read your letter, but chances are we're going to focus on 2025.
5. I was ready to retire anyway, so the DRP was fine with me. My “resignation letter” just said “Thanks for 21 great years.” Do you still want to read it?
We would love to read it! Not everybody quit with a jazzy speech or scorching-hot letter. Send it in!
6. My former manager wrote a first-rate email when she resigned. Can I send you her letter?
Yes…but. We have a separate form for submitting other people's letters. We will try to track them down so we can talk it over and confirm details.
7. Can I submit my letter anonymously?
We will only publish a letter if we can do so using your real name and former job title. Other redactions are possible. But our goal is to have an accurate, reliable historical account.
8. Why is a comics and poetry publisher doing this book?
We're in the business of telling good stories. The decimation of the federal workforce is the most interesting, most important story in the world right now. Whatever particular issue you care about—war with Iran, ocean plastics, marginal tax rates, Chinese tariffs—that issue has changed profoundly because over 200,000 federal employees left public service.
We may commission a few color plates to illustrate some particularly vivid letters, but 99% of this book will be the letters we select and some expert commentary from historians and legal scholars.
Send a letter for consideration
Please follow us at @BicycleComics on Bluesky and like us on Facebook to get updates on new releases.
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