All Health and Human Services Employees Offered Buyouts to Resign

On March 7, all the approximately 80,000 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) employees were emailed a voluntary buyout offer to resign. Employees were offered US$25,000 to walk away from their jobs by 5 p.m. on Friday. 

HHS oversees the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which underwent substantial cuts to its workforce last month, along with the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration. The email was sent to employees across these departments, the Associated Press reported. 

As NBC News reported, several employees in the agency already felt uneasy about their employment. Experts also have warned that cuts at HHS could hamstring Kennedy’s ability to push forward his own priorities, including making changes to vaccine policies and eliminating unhealthy foods. 

This week HHS leaders also were to offer plans for shrinking their workforces. HHS is one of the government’s most expensive federal agencies, with an annual budget of about $1.7 trillion that is mostly spent on healthcare coverage for millions of Americans enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid.