WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA confirmed on Wednesday that it has offered buyouts to employees who voluntarily resign, the latest group of workers targeted in President Donald Trump's push to transform the federal government.
A CIA spokesperson declined to say how many people received offers or whether they face any deadline to decide.
Trump's Office of Personnel Managemen t already has offered millions of federal workers about eight months of salary if they agree by Thursday to leave their jobs. The CIA and other national security agencies were initially exempted, but the CIA offers suggest few corners of the government will escape Trump's overhaul.
Trump has long criticized America's intelligence agencies, and his new CIA director, John Ratcliffe, has promised big changes, claiming the CIA has strayed from its original focus on human-collected intelligence.
In a statement sent to The Associated Press, the CIA said the buyout offers are part of an effort by Ratcliffe to move 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," the agency said about the buyouts, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Since taking office last month Trump has launched an attempt to gut and reshape several federal agencies, most notably the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has been largely dismantled by Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, the leader of Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
National security experts have warned that deep cuts to the CIA and other agencies could put lives at risk by hampering their mission or reducing the flow of intelligence between the U.S. and its allies. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, urged CIA employees to carefully weigh the offer.
"There are few government agencies more essential to our national security than the CIA," Warner said in a statement. "A lot of federal employees, including at the CIA, are my constituents, and I've been warning them that these 'buyouts' are empty promises, since Congress hasn't approved any money to do it. I'd hate to see people resign and then get stiffed like the contractors on President Trump's construction projects."
Though the precise number is classified, the CIA employs thousands of people engaged in the collection and analysis of foreign intelligence, both at its headquarters in Virginia as well as overseas postings.
Ratcliffe told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee in January that the CIA must do a better job of harnessing technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing while also expanding the agency's use of human intelligence collection.
"We’re not where we’re supposed to be,” Ratcliffe said as senators considered his nomination.