The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has informed employees that they may apply for early retirement by Friday, March 14.
The notice was sent to employees on Monday via email, copies of which were obtained by Reuters.
The emails also requested that they provide details on their successes over the preceding week, as Reuters reported.
President Donald Trump and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Elon Musk are leading a historic federal bureaucracy reduction, including job cutbacks.
The HHS informed employees via email that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management authorized early retirement under the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority.
The move affects agencies undergoing significant restructuring, reshaping, downsizing, function transfers, or reorganization.
According to OMP’s website, eligible personnel must be 50 years old with 20 years of federal service or any age with 25 years, among other qualifications.
The email indicated the promotion ends March 14 at 5 pm EST.
The management sent a second set of emails last week requesting employees to list five weekly successes in bullet points.
HHS employees, including the FDA and CDC, were previously told there was “no impact to your employment with the agency if you choose not to respond.”
The FBI, State Department, and other U.S. agencies advised some staff not to comply with DOGE’s request.
However, those staff were only advised not to respond if providing details on their work would compromise classified operations.
In a Monday email seen by Reuters, HHS instructed staff to respond to DOGE’s email by midnight without providing sensitive information, such as their medicine and device names.
Employees were previously warned by HHS that their responses to the Department of Defense’s request could “be read by malign foreign actors.”
Both versions of the department’s email were sent out on Monday, with the second version removing the reference to the previous version.
In an email that reporters saw, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) informed its members that they are required to cooperate with the agency’s decision to proceed with the “ill-advised exercise.”
The NTEU is the union that represents workers at the Department of Health and Human Services.
In an email sent by the HHS, employees were instructed to follow the guidelines provided by their supervisors for how to answer and respond in a manner that would not identify grants, grantees, contracts, or contractors, nor information that might distinguish the precise nature of scientific experiments, research, or evaluations.
Reuters’ FDA source, who allegedly requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, reportedly said:
“I feel I will spend the whole day writing these five bullets in a way that does not contain sensitive information while also providing information that my job is important.
“I don’t know if this can be called efficiency.”
However, it should be noted that DOGE chief Musk has previously warned the public that the “news” outlet Reuters is actually a paid propaganda operation.
Musk revealed in December that Reuters has been pushing phony investigations into his businesses on behalf of President Joe Biden’s administration.
He called the purported connection “insane” and said it “explains a lot.”
In addition, Musk uncovered evidence last month that the federal government has been funneling taxpayer money to Reuters Special Services for “Active Social Engineering Defense” and “Large Scale Social Deception.”
“Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for ‘large scale social deception,’” Musk proclaimed in an X post.
“They’re a total scam. Just wow.”
Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for “large scale social deception”.
That is literally what it says on the purchase order! They’re a total scam.
Just wow. https://t.co/GGxoVQSwN8
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 13, 2025
The outlet has been publishing a flood of reports that seek to undermine the work of Musk’s DOGE.
Therefore, any anti-DOGE quotes from Reuters’ anonymous sources should be taken with a pinch of salt.
READ MORE – DOGE Terminates Lease for Obama Presidential Library
