State Dept offers buyouts as critics charge Trump administration with destroying diplomatic corps
State Department offers buyouts as critics charge Trump admin with destroying diplomatic corps
By Conor Finnegan
Nov 11, 2017, 12:19 AM ET
A State Department official confirms to ABC News that the department is offering "voluntary buyouts and early retirement incentives" as part of its effort to reduce its own ranks.
The Trump administration wants to get rid of 641 employees -- in addition to "normal attrition" -- by the end of 2018, in particular "to reduce unnecessary supervisory levels and organizational layering," the official said.
"The Department's goal is to meet its workforce reduction targets through the use of voluntary measures such as buyouts rather than involuntary measures, such as furloughs or ... layoffs," the official added.
The federal government's Office of Personnel Management and Office of Management and Budget both approved the buyouts -- which can reach a maximum of $25,000 before taxes, depending on the employee's level.
The agency has also frozen all new hiring and any promotions in an effort to limit the number of employees.
The news comes after a scathing letter from the Foreign Service union's president, questioning why the administration was depleting the diplomatic corps' ranks at a "dizzying speed" and raising red flags about "plummeting" interest in Foreign Service careers.
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http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/state-department-offering-buyouts-move-critics-destroys-diplomatic/story?id=51078449