DHS intelligence office sent deferred resignation offers to shed staff in recent months

The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis since the summer has sent its employees offers to leave the government early while taking pay for a set amount of time, marking a renewed push to shed its headcount after it faced scrutiny for related reduction plans outlined earlier this year.

The offers to apply to the deferred resignation program, or DRP, were modeled on the Office of Personnel Management’s “fork in the road” effort and sent twice to I&A staffers since July, according to a copy of one of those offer emails issued in September and a person familiar with the matter. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the details of the plans. The email also included options to participate in a Voluntary Separation Incentive Program and Voluntary Early Retirement Authority. 

The offers were extended after Nextgov/FCW first reported in July that the intelligence agency was seeking to jettison most of its employees. Those plans, which would have only kept some 275 people, drew major pushback from law enforcement groups and Jewish organizations that have long relied on the DHS spy agency to disseminate timely intelligence about threats that target state, local, tribal and territorial communities. One organization privately warned Congress that the proposed cuts would create “dangerous intelligence gaps.”

Read more at NextGov/FCW