The US government is planning to shrink the workforce of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other major American spy units in the upcoming days, media reports said.

According to reports, the White House is eyeing the reduction of 1,200 staff in the CIA.

The administration recently informed lawmakers on Capitol Hill that it intends to reduce the CIA’s workforce by about 1,200 personnel over several years and cut thousands more from other parts of the US intelligence community, including at the National Security Agency, a highly secretive service that specializes in cryptology and global electronic espionage, a person familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.

The CIA did not publicly disclose the size of its workforce.

However, it is estimated that the workforce of the intelligence agency is 22,000.

It is still not clear which section of the intelligence agency will be affected.

The downsizing is happening even as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has pledged to put more agency resources on China and on cartels smuggling fentanyl and other synthetic drugs into the United States, the US newspaper reported.

The staff reductions would take place over several years and would be accomplished in part through reduced hiring, The Washington Post reported.

The goal of a roughly 1,200-person staff reduction includes several hundred individuals who already have opted for early retirement, the person familiar with the matter told the newspaper.

DOGE

According to reports, the downsizing is not connected to the activities performed by DOGE.

“Director Ratcliffe is moving swiftly to ensure the CIA workforce is responsive to the Administration’s national security priorities,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement as quoted by The Washington Post.

“These moves are part of a holistic strategy to infuse the Agency with renewed energy, provide opportunities for rising leaders to emerge, and better position CIA to deliver on its mission,” the statement said.