God only knows what the actual rules are, never mind the rules that are reality on the ground.
I can promise you that the civil service will go to the mat trying to protect every handout dime that McCabe makes a claim to, as a defense-in-principle of their own handouts.
Every person who works or has worked for the feds needs a 50% pay cut and 80% benefits cut to be merely on par with the free market. Halve both again, and then twice more, to be on par with their performance.
Maybe he’s been negotiating the terms of his departure since he announced a few weeks ago he was intending on retiring in March.