As part of US President Donald Trump’s government cutbacks program, most of the 80,000 federal workers responsible for disease research, food inspection, and Medicare and Medicaid administration have received letters offering to resign in exchange for $25,000.
This was reported by the Associated Press news agency.
Employees must respond to the so-called offer of voluntary resignation by the evening of March 14. The email was sent to department employees, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration in Maryland.
The mass mailing came a few days before agency heads at the US Department of Health and Human Services are due to propose plans for workforce cuts. The ministry is one of the government’s most expensive federal agencies, with an annual budget of about $1.7 trillion, most of which goes to health care for millions of people enrolled in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has hinted at plans for major staff cuts and promised last year to immediately lay off all 600 employees of the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Biomedical Research. However, he has not done so yet.
With the support of billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Trump administration is trying to reduce the number of government employees to cut costs.
