The CIA, America's decades-old civilian foreign intelligence service tasked with intelligence gathering around the world, joined other federal agencies Tuesday in offering buyouts — to its entire workforce, according to a report.
The agency appears to be the first intelligence agency to tell workers they can take Elon Musk's signature buyouts, in which employees can take eight months of pay and benefits if they quit, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday night.
The report noted that the agency also entered a hiring freeze for people who've been given a conditional offer. Additionally, some will likely have their offers rescinded if they "don't have the right background for the agency's new goals," the report said. Those goals include implementing Trump's tariffs and "undermining China."
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“There’s no statutory authority that I can see for the president making this offer,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told the Journal.
Kaine, who previously warned federal workers Trump would stiff them with the deal, said doing so comes with risk. “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.”
A CIA spokeswoman told the paper the agency under new Director John Ratcliffe hopes to “infuse the agency with renewed energy.” An aide for Ratcliffe, meanwhile, said extending the buyout packages to his agency could open up paths for the CIA to become more aggressive — including spying on countries in the Western Hemisphere that aren't colloquially considered adversaries.
The news comes days after the government’s human resources agency distributed a memo saying it would subject all federal workers to “enhanced standards of suitability and conduct” and warned of mass cuts. The email was sent to millions of employees and said those who left voluntarily would receive about eight months of salary, but they'd have to do so by Feb. 6.