Employees of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are being forced to choose between staying on their jobs or accepting a government buyout, NPR reports. The buyout program is one of several methods the current administration is using to shrink the federal government under the direction of the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), an advisory group headed by Elon Musk.
CISA was created under the first Trump administration in 2018 to protect key infrastructure from cyberattacks and advise the government and its partners on how to build more secure infrastructure in the future. The agency played an important role in the investigation of the Salt Typhoon hacker group in 2024, which hacked into US telecommunications companies to get at government officials. Given that cybersecurity is becoming more important rather than less, downsizing the agency could lead to problems.
However, the implications of downsizing or effectively eliminating key government agencies and departments do not appear to be a concern for DOGE or the Trump administration. In addition to CISA, employees of the IRS, CIA, and Department of Education have reportedly received ransom notes. The offer gives government employees until midnight on February 6 to accept the ransom and be paid until October, or return to work in person, agree to new work standards, and promise to be “reliable, loyal, and trustworthy,” according to USA Today.
The agreement mirrors a similar offer Elon Musk made to Twitter employees after he acquired the social network in 2022, even down to the wording describing it as a “fork in the road.” The key difference between then and now is the budget. The government has not set aside money to pay a group of employees to do nothing for eight months, and it is not clear that it plans to do so, as government spending is ultimately controlled by Congress. In addition, a legal fight could put all of this in doubt. A US district judge in Boston has already ruled against the buyout deal, giving government officials at least until Monday to make a decision, Reuters writes, and there is a possibility of another extension.
