The Trump administration is reversing scores of CDC layoffs after many employees were mistakenly terminated Oct. 10 through a procedural error, federal health officials told The New York Times
On Oct. 10 — day 10 of the federal government shutdown — the administration said it had begun laying off federal workers, including HHS employees deemed “non-essential.”
“The RIFs have begun,” Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in an Oct. 10 post on X, referring to reductions in force. The administration said it had issued RIFs to more than 4,000 workers across seven federal agencies, including HHS, according to a court filing cited by CBS News.
The following day, two federal health officials told the Times hundreds of CDC workers initially received layoff notices in error and were being notified of their rehiring. Those affected by the mixup include leaders of the nation’s measles outbreak response team, staff who work on the “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report” and those working on the ebola outbreak response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many of the agency’s epidemic intelligence service officers, individuals responsible for investigating disease outbreaks, were also being rehired.
The individuals “were sent incorrect notifications, which was fixed last night and this morning with a technical correction,” a senior administration official told the Times in an Oct. 11 statement. “Any correction has already been remedied.”
The CDC has been roiled by job cuts and leadership shakeups under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In March, HHS said it would terminate 2,400 jobs at the CDC; much of those were rescinded by June. In August, hundreds of employees at the agency working in violence prevention, equal employment opportunity and the Freedom of Information Office received permanent layoff notices. Later that month, Susan Monarez, PhD, was ousted from her role as CDC director, after less than a month in the role.
Ahead of the government shutdown, which began Oct. 1, the White House directed federal agencies to prepare for mass layoffs. HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon previously confirmed HHS is laying off workers in an Oct. 10 statement to Becker’s.
“HHS employees across multiple divisions have received reduction-in-force notices as a direct consequence of the Democrat-led government shutdown,” the statement said. “HHS under the Biden administration became a bloated bureaucracy, growing its budget by 38% and its workforce by 17%.”
“All HHS employees receiving reduction-in-force notices were designated nonessential by their respective divisions. HHS continues to close wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.”
It’s unclear how many of the agency’s 79,717 workers will be affected by the layoffs. More than 32,000 HHS workers were furloughed Oct. 1.
Trump administration officials had previously warned of mass layoffs if Congress could not approve a funding deal.
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 800,000 employees, said the layoffs violate federal law and urged Congress to promptly end the shutdown.
“It is disgraceful that the Trump administration has used the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally fire thousands of workers who provide critical services to communities across the country,” Everett Kelley, national president of the AFGE, said in a statement. “In AFGE’s 93 years of existence under several presidential administrations — including during Trump’s first term — no president has ever decided to fire thousands of furloughed workers during a government shutdown.”
The union has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the layoffs, alleging the move is “designed to punish workers and pressure Congress.”
The lapse in federal funding has caused ripple effects in healthcare. Many hospitals and health systems have paused Medicare telehealth offerings and discharged patients from hospital-at-home programs after CMS reimbursement for both services expired Oct. 1.
Republicans and Democrats remain divided over funding resolutions to reopen the federal government. At the center of the impasse is an extension of ACA premium subsidies; Democrats have said they will not sign onto any measure that does not include an extension of the tax credits, while Republicans are pushing for a bill that would fund the government at current levels through Nov. 21.
