Amid Measles & Bird Flu Outbreaks, Department Of Health & Human Services Offers All Workers $25K Voluntary Buyout Offer

Eighty thousand federal workers at the Department of Health and Human Services were emailed with the option to voluntarily resign in exchange for a $25,000 payment. They have one week to accept the deal. 

The offer is part of the Trump administration’s efforts, spearheaded by tech billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to slash the size of the federal workforce and reduce the government’s budget through mass layoffs and financial cuts. Federal agencies announced more than 62,200 job cuts in February.

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HHS oversees several major health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which underwent substantial cuts to its workforce last month. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services also underwent substantial cuts.

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 department staffers he’d like to see removed. Last year, he promised to immediately remove 600 employees at the NIH.

“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.”

It is unclear how the buyouts would impact some of HHS’s challenges, including addressing the bird flu outbreak, which has contributed to soaring egg prices, and the measles outbreak, which has claimed at least two lives.