HHS offers buyout to most employees

Health and Human Services offered most of its 80,000 employees responsible for researching diseases, inspecting food and administering Medicare and Medicaid a $25,000 “voluntary separation offer” to leave their jobs. Federal employees, including those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration, had until March 14 to accept the offer. The effort is part of President Trump’s government cuts. Nearly 1,000 people, including scientists, recently rallied against the administration’s National Institutes of Health firings and budget cuts, saying Americans will suffer if the cuts go through. (AP article, 3/9/25)