By Joel Schectman and Dustin Volz
WASHINGTON—The Central Intelligence Agency offered buyouts to its entire workforce Tuesday, in what officials said is a bid to bring the agency in line with President Trump’s priorities, including targeting drug cartels.
The CIA appeared to be the first intelligence agency to tell its employees that they can quit their jobs and receive about eight months of pay and benefits as part of Trump’s push to downsize the federal government. The offer last month made to most civilian federal agencies exempted some categories of federal workers, including those with national security roles.
The agency is also freezing the hiring of job seekers already given a conditional offer, an aide to CIA Director John Ratcliffe said. Some are likely to be rescinded if the applicants don’t have the right background for the agency’s new goals, which also include Trump’s trade war and undermining China, the aide said.
Across government agencies, overall interest in the deferred resignation offer appears to be low, career coaches focused on the federal workforce say, citing conversations with more than 100 people. Many people have questions about whether they are legally able to take another job during the payout period or whether they can return to government under a future administration, these people said.
“There’s no statutory authority that I can see for the president making this offer,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.), who represents tens of thousands of federal workers and said no constituents have told him they are taking the deal. Doing so presents risk, he said: “The administration immediately knows, you don’t want to work for me. They’ll find some other way to get rid of you. You should not raise your hand.”
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