CIA offers buyouts to employees

The CIA has offered buyouts to employees, The Hill has learned.

CIA employees were informed they could receive eight months of pay and benefits if they leave their roles, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the offers. Officials told the Journal that priorities from President Trump were behind the buyouts.

“Director [John] 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.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on the offers. 

There have been big shake-ups at federal agencies in the wake of 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. So far, about 20,000 federal employees have accepted the offer.

Employees at another government agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development, are being placed on administrative leave with pay “until further notice.”

John Ratcliffe, the CIA’s director, said last month 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.

This story was updated at 6:30 p.m.