Jenna McLaughlin
Appearances
NPR News Now
NPR News: 02-05-2025 2PM EST
A CIA spokesperson said Director John Ratcliffe is, quote, moving swiftly to ensure the CIA workforce is responsive to the administration's national security priorities. The offers were sent to all employees of the agencies, though sources cautioned there will likely be exceptions for highly sensitive or senior roles. Jenna McLaughlin, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 02-05-2025 2PM EST
Employees at the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence received deferred resignation offers in recent days. That's according to sources who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity. The move is part of an effort to realign the intelligence community with President Trump's agenda.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-21-2025 6PM EST
On day one, Acting Homeland Security Chief Benjamin Huffman sent a memo to all members of the agency's advisory committees terminating their roles. NPR acquired a copy of the memo, which says the decision is part of an effort to eliminate, quote, misuse of resources.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-21-2025 6PM EST
The memo also says that while advisory members can reapply, future committee work will be focused on DHS's mission of protecting the homeland. Trump's pick to lead Homeland Security, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, has said that the agency has gotten distracted by work like election security. She has vowed to shrink DHS components, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Up First from NPR
Federal Worker Surveillance, Trump's Team In Europe, Elon Musk And Mars
Sure, yeah, GSA doesn't often make the headlines, but it is really important. A source told me to think about it this way. It's basically the federal government's circulatory system. It pumps blood to the rest of the body. Without GSA, federal agencies would have a really hard time doing things like buying anything or accomplishing their mission.
Up First from NPR
Federal Worker Surveillance, Trump's Team In Europe, Elon Musk And Mars
They buy real estate, they get supplies for the government, but also manage nearly all of the government's contracts, so it runs kind of like a business. If GSA is impacted, that's going to trickle down to the rest of the government and eventually to normal people who are seeking public services.
Up First from NPR
Federal Worker Surveillance, Trump's Team In Europe, Elon Musk And Mars
Yeah, so sources at GSA spoke to my colleague Shannon Bond and I on condition of anonymity about all this. They're not allowed to speak to the press, and they were really scared of being further retaliated against by Trump officials. But listen, Layla, what they told us is that there's going to be big job cuts, canceled contracts, terminated leases.
Up First from NPR
Federal Worker Surveillance, Trump's Team In Europe, Elon Musk And Mars
They're still figuring out the particulars of how to get to that 50% number. But there will be three requirements to keep your job. Is it required by law? Is it critical to the mission? And lastly, does it generate revenue? Remote work is all going to be over by March 3rd, but it is kind of unclear where employees around the country will actually go into the office.
Up First from NPR
Federal Worker Surveillance, Trump's Team In Europe, Elon Musk And Mars
That's because GSA wants to consolidate all its regional and local office space into four or five major hubs across the country. You know, inevitably, there's going to be more and more legal challenges to what's going on.
Up First from NPR
Federal Worker Surveillance, Trump's Team In Europe, Elon Musk And Mars
The deferred resignation offers we've been hearing about and these firings that have been happening without cause or notice, but everything's moving so fast, it's hard to keep up. By the way, at the end of the day, it's unclear how much all these major changes are going to cost.
Up First from NPR
Federal Worker Surveillance, Trump's Team In Europe, Elon Musk And Mars
Yeah, that's really important. Our sources told us that GSA employees in some departments have been specifically told by their managers that going forward, everything they do on their work devices is going to be heavily surveilled. You know, of course, most government and corporate-owned devices are subject to some monitoring. That's part of the deal of being employed.
Up First from NPR
Federal Worker Surveillance, Trump's Team In Europe, Elon Musk And Mars
But this is really above and beyond. One of the most disturbing things sources told us is that employees would have what's called a key logger put on their computers. Those programs track every single thing that you type. It's super invasive, yeah.
Up First from NPR
Federal Worker Surveillance, Trump's Team In Europe, Elon Musk And Mars
But technical experts at GSA also told us it's a big cybersecurity risk, depending on whether things like passwords or other sensitive information is retained or stored elsewhere. Other surveillance might be monitoring of when employees log in, their badge swipes, their chats. Meanwhile, staff in D.C. can't just swipe into the office anymore. They have to go through a full security screening.
Up First from NPR
Federal Worker Surveillance, Trump's Team In Europe, Elon Musk And Mars
One of our sources said that they were told this is the Trump plan for the rest of the federal government with some small exceptions. So the 50% cuts, the ramping up of pressure, this constant surveillance we've been talking about. You know, Leila, we might be having the same conversation again soon about a different agency.
Up First from NPR
Federal Worker Surveillance, Trump's Team In Europe, Elon Musk And Mars
No problem.