Health and Human Services employees were offered voluntary buyouts to resign from their jobs on Friday night, according to a person who received the email and an administration official.
The agency’s approximately 80,000 employees received an unsigned email Friday night offering them a “voluntary separation incentive payment,” with a deadline to respond set for Friday, March 14.
The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In February, during an interview on Fox News’ “Ingraham Angle,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he had a “generic list” of staffers at the department he’d like to see removed.
“If you’ve been involved in good science, you have got nothing to worry about,” Kennedy said. “If you care about public health, you’ve got nothing to worry about. If you’re in there working for the pharmaceutical industry, then I’d say you should move out and work for the pharmaceutical industry.”
HHS oversees the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which provides health insurance coverage for a significant portion of the U.S. population. The agency also oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which underwent substantial cuts to its workforce last month.