• The CIA offered buyouts to its entire staff Tuesday. The deal will allow employees to resign and receive pay and benefits for about eight months.
• The CIA wants to align with President Trump’s policies for the agency –– targeting China and drug cartels.
• This is the first time buyouts have been made to an intelligence agency.

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The CIA offered buyouts to its entire staff on Tuesday, Feb. 4, allowing employees to resign and receive pay and benefits for about eight months. According to multiple reports, the offer is being made to help the CIA align with President Donald Trump’s priorities for the agency—targeting China and drug cartels.

In addition to the buyouts, the Wall Street Journal reported the CIA is implementing a hiring freeze and rescinding some job offers to individuals who don’t fit the new plan. 

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“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,” a CIA spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters. 

The Trump administration offered buyouts to almost 2 million federal workers on Jan. 28, but defense and national security officials were excluded. This is the first known time the buyouts were made available to an intelligence agency. 

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., told Straight Arrow News that the CIA is struggling with recruiting because young people can’t bring their phones to work.

“So we’re trying to help them be able to recruit the workforce they actually need. And the idea of just randomly offering unfunded buyouts without going through Congress is overreach,” Kelly said. 

Democrats, including Kelly, have said Congress needs to approve funding to pay employees who aren’t working. 

“Buyouts require appropriated money,” Kelly said. “We did not appropriate money for this. If this is something the administration wants to pursue, they should come to the Intelligence Committee in the Senate and the House, and we could talk about it. We could debate it.”

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The buyout offer to the general workforce does not appear to be very popular. As of Tuesday, approximately 20,000 federal employees, or roughly 1% of those eligible, had told the government they would accept. The White House said it expected up to 10% to take the deal.