WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – United States President Donald Trump’s administration is planning significant personnel cuts at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other major U.S. spy units, according to The Washington Post, in a move seen as part of his bid to downsize key government agencies.
The CIA plans to cut 1,200 positions, along with thousands more from other parts of the U.S. intelligence community, the newspaper reported on Friday.
Members of Congress have reportedly been told about the planned cuts, which will take place over several years and be accomplished in part through reduced hiring as opposed to layoffs, the report added.
Asked about the report, a spokesperson for the agency did not confirm the specifics, but said that the CIA 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, provide opportunities for rising leaders to emerge, and better position CIA to deliver on its mission,” the spokesperson also said.
In March, the CIA also announced that it would fire an undetermined number of junior officers as part of Trump’s government downsizing policy.
An agency spokesperson said those officers with behavioral issues or who are deemed a poor fit for intelligence work will be laid off, noting that not everyone proves to be able to handle the pressures of the job.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration sent termination notices late on Friday to employees of a worker health and safety agency that provides research and services for coal miners, firefighters and others, despite appeals by a lawmaker from Trump’s Republican Party to preserve its programs.
Employees of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health received reduction-in-force notices that said the job losses were necessary to reshape the workforce of the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a copy of the notices reviewed by Reuters.
Nearly all NIOSH employees were placed on administrative leave in February but around 40 who worked on coal-mining and firefighter safety were asked to return temporarily to work several days ago, the union for the agency’s employees said. At least two of those employees have now been notified of termination.
U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, had lobbied Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to restore the programs, including the coal-focused work of its Morgantown, West Virginia, office.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees NIOSH, did not immediately respond to a request for comment after regular business hours. A spokesperson earlier this week said NIOSH’s functions would join the new Administration for a Healthy America, alongside multiple agencies. It was not clear whether any of the terminated employees would be transferred elsewhere.