The CIA has offered buyouts to employees, according to multiple reports.
Eight months’ pay and benefits can be given to agency workers if they leave their roles, employees were informed by the CIA, according to The Wall Street Journal, who reported on the matter first. Officials told the Journal that priorities from President Trump were behind the buyouts.
“Director Ratcliffe is moving swiftly to ensure the CIA workforce is responsive to the Administration's national security priorities. These moves are part of a holistic strategy to infuse the Agency with renewed energy, provide opportunities for rising leaders to emerge, and better position the CIA to deliver on its mission,” a spokesperson for the agency said in a statement.
There have been big shakeups at federal agencies in the wake of President Trump reentering the White House, leaving many in Washington rattled at the changes.
Last month, the Trump administration offered 2 million federal employees the opportunity to resign prior to return to office requirements as part of an attempt to reduce the workforce. A minimum of 20,000 federal employees have accepted the offer.
The reported move from the CIA also follows employees at another government agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), being placed on administrative leave with pay “until further notice.”
John Ratcliffe, the CIA’s director, said last month that the president desires to keep politics “out of the intelligence community.”
“What President Trump wants is, he says, ‘Lead with integrity and get the politics out of the intelligence community,’” Ratcliffe said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Rebecca Beitsch contributed reporting.
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