Dr. Anthony Fauci will receive the largest retirement package in federal history when he retires.
Fauci, who turned 81 on Dec. 24, has worked for the government for 55 years. He currently serves as the Chief Medical Advisor to President Biden.
His annual retirement would exceed $350,000, according to an audit from OpenTheBooks.com. His pension and benefits would also increase each year through cost-of-living adjustments.
According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, federal employees who have worked for as long as Fauci can earn “80 percent of [their] high-3 average salary, plus credit for [their] sick leave.”
The calculation is determined by the last three available published years of Fauci’s salary, between 2018 and 2020 where he earned a total of $1.25 million.
Fauci was the American government's most highly compensated employee in both 2019 and 2020, earning $417,608 and $434,312 each year, respectively. He earned $399,325 in 2018. The doctor earns more than the president, any four-star general, as well as 4.3 million federal employees.
During the George W. Bush administration, he received a “permanent pay adjustment” for his biodefense work.
“Dr. Fauci is likely eligible for an annuity, paid out by the federal government," the organization reported in Forbes. "After serving 10 years, federal employees are eligible for ‘2 percent of [their] high-3 average salary for each year. Dr. Fauci has more than surpassed the 10-year-minimum work requirement, and if he retired last year he could have drawn down at least an extra $8,344 a year.”
OpenTheBooks filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in November seeking access to Facui’s unpublished 2021 salary, job description, royalties, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and employment contract. A federal judge has ordered the material must be produced by Feb. 1, 2022.
“Fauci has become somewhat of a celebrity among Democrats after he became the point person on the White House coronavirus response under Trump and continued that role with Biden,” noted The Daily Mail. Fauci has been “praised by the left for rebuking Trump in the early days of the pandemic while Republicans have called for Fauci to be fired and have slammed the doctor for his agency giving a gain-of-function grant to the Wuhan lab, which they claim led to the development of the COVID-19 virus.”
Fauci has advocated for mask and vaccine requirements, making him a divisive figure among the American public. In recent days, he has urged Americans to cancel their upcoming New Year’s Eve parties because of the rapid spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.
"I have been telling people consistently that if you're vaccinated and boosted and you have a family setting, in the home with family and relatives, it is ok to gather for the holiday," Fauci said on CNN on Dec. 27.
"But when you're talking about a New Year's Eve party, we have 30, 40, 50 people celebrating,” the doctor continued. “You do not know the status of their vaccination, I would recommend strongly stay away from that this year."
Presently, Fauci has not announced any plans to retire.
On multiple occasions, the doctor said he would not leave his job until the coronavirus pandemic had concluded.
“There’s no way I’m going to walk away from this until we get this under control. I mean, that’s the purpose of what we do. That’s our mission in life. In the middle of it, I’m not going to walk away,” he said during a Dec. 19 interview with Jonathan Karl on ABC News,
He had already denied plans to retire while on CBS’s Face of the Nation in November.
“I’m going to keep doing that until this COVID-19 outbreak is in the rearview mirror, regardless of what anybody says about me, or wants to lie and create crazy fabrications because of political motivations,” he said.
