All employees in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services were notified Friday of the option to voluntarily resign in exchange for a $25,000 payment, a source familiar with the situation told CBS 太子探花.
The department-wide email offered a “voluntary separation incentive payment,” the source said. Employees have been given until a deadline of March 14 to reply.
Friday’s offer is part of the Trump administration’s efforts to slash the size of federal workforce and shrink the government’s budget聽. That process has been primarily carried out through the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, led by billionaire Elon Musk.
Federal agencies聽聽more than 62,200 job cuts in February, a number which surged U.S. layoffs to their highest mark since July 2020.
And last week,聽聽of $15,000 to $25,000 was offered to employees in the Social Security Administration.
The far-reaching HHS has more than 80,000 employees and聽聽several major health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Thousands of probationary workers聽聽last month they would be fired. Probationary workers are generally those who have been on the job for less than a year.
It’s unclear how the layoffs and buyouts will impact some of the challenges facing HHS and its new chief, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including聽聽which has contributed to a spike in the price of eggs, as well as a聽聽which has claimed at least two lives.
In January, immediately after President Trump took office, the over two million civilian federal workers聽聽in which they would get paid through September without being required to show up for work. About 75,000 workers聽, which has been challenged in court.
