The Central Intelligence Agency offered buyouts to its entire workforce Tuesday, citing an aim to bring the agency in line with U.S. President Donald Trump’s priorities, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
A CIA spokesperson said in a statement the moves were meant to align the agency with the goals of new CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
“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,” a CIA spokesperson said in a statement.
The agency does not disclose its budget or the number of people it employs. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the news.
The report of buyout offers is in line with a massive makeover of the U.S. government embarked on by the Trump administration, which has fired and sidelined hundreds of civil servants in first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing loyalists.
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. 30 as Trump seeks to slash the size of the government.
Earlier on Tuesday, unions representing U.S. government employees filed a lawsuit to block the Trump administration’s plan to offer buyouts to federal workers.
Ratcliffe, a former member of the House of Representatives who served as Director of National Intelligence during Trump’s first term, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as director of the CIA days after Trump took office for his second term.
(Reporting by Erin Banco in New York, Jonathan Landay in Washington and Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Scott Malone, Edwina Gibbs and Gerry Doyle)
