C.I.A. Will Call Back Thousands of Furloughed Employees

Senior lawmakers complained that intelligence employees were deemed "nonessential"

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The Central Intelligence Agency announced plans to call back thousands of employees who were furloughed during the first week of the government shutdown. In a statement issued Tuesday to the CIA’s workforce, agency leader John Brennan said he worried about the the furloughing’s “potential adverse cumulative and unseen impact on our national security.”

The CIA has not disclosed specifics on which categories of employees would be summoned back to work, citing the classified nature of their work, according to the Washington Post.

The return to work comes shortly after senior lawmakers criticized how intelligence employees were being considered “nonessential” under federally issued guidelines. On Friday, Republican Senator Charles E. Grassley sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. accusing him of a “failure of leadership” for allowing employees at U.S. spy agencies to be dismissed during the shutdown.

[Washington Post]