$341 million? That’s less than 12 days operating expenses for the IRS.
Having worked around the gov’t, I’ll tell you the four ways to work around this issue. First, when folks leave, you leave the slot empty for a year...pocketing the money to make up for the loss. Second, you defer all costly training for one year....pocketing the money to make up for the loss. Third, you cut the bonus program to all employees GS13 and below to nothing while still running the program for the higher grades...pocketing the money to make up for the loss. Fourth, you cut the each division’s credit card usage for office supplies by a third....pocketing the money to make up for the loss.
There’s also a fifth method where you let go of the present contract folks for clean-up services in the buildings...opting for a newer crew who only comes in on Mondays and Thursdays.
I’ve seen all of these various tricks. They generally all work. The problem that you see is that for one year, it’s acceptable....when you start talking about this type of practice for two or three years...it gets to being demoralizing.