Hours before the deadline for the Trump administration's federal employee buyout offer, a judge will consider a request to block the buyout from moving forward.

A lawsuit says the Trump administration's offer of a buyout to federal employees is unlawful, noting that Congress has not appropriated money for it.

If the Trump administration reaches its goal of cutting 5% to 10% of staff, more than 100,000 people will leave the federal workforce, making it by far the largest layoff in U.S. history. The current record-holder is IBM, which cut 60,000 jobs in 1993.

Millions of U.S. government workers face a Thursday deadline to tell the Trump administration whether they will accept a buyout offer or remain in their jobs, but still face the possibility of being thrown out of work if they decide to stay.

A Treasury union president representing 150,000 federal workers urges them not to accept the Trump administration's buyouts through a “deferred resignation program” in a push to quickly reduce the government workforce.

Assurances from administration officials have not alleviated concerns across a range of agencies. Some federal workers said they did not trust the validity of the offers, doubting that Trump has the authority to disburse money. Others point to his record of stiffing contractors as a New York real estate mogul.

The American Federation of Government Employees and two other unions claim the buyout offer is "arbitrary and capricious" and violates federal law, according to the complaint. The White House last week offered 2 million civilian full-time federal workers an opportunity to stop working this week and receive pay and benefits through Sept.

Download the NewsNation app here > Deadline nears for federal workers to accept buyout offer Buyout: More than 2 million federal workers face a deadline of 11:59 p.m. EST Thursday to decide whether they want to leave their jobs.