White House initiates mass federal layoffs

On Friday, the White House followed through on its threat to terminate federal employees en masse in response to the government shutdown, with 1,100-1,200 employees at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) let go as part of the reductions in force (RIFs).

• Other than the Treasury Department, that’s more than any other department. The departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, House and Urban Development, Homeland Security, Interior, and Environmental Protection Agency were also affected, with more than 4,000 staff fired across the government. The administration said other agencies are still considering layoffs.
• Reminder: More than 32,000 HHS employees have already been furloughed because of the shutdown, and the department’s staff has already been severely reduced under previous DOGE efforts.

The details:

• The HHS cuts affected employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR).
• Around 1,300 CDC staff were originally laid off Friday. That included the agency’s entire Washington, D.C. office, along with offices related to injury prevention, disease surveillance, and chronic disease. Employees were terminated at offices including the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (which includes programs focused on overdose prevention), the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, and the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology, among others.
• Around 125 employees at SAMHSA were laid off. While the full scope of firings at SAMHSA was not clear, some of the offices affected include the Office of Communications and the Center for Mental Health Services, including a branch that oversaw grants for community health clinics.

But:

• By Saturday evening, around 700 of the CDC terminations appeared to have been rescinded, leaving 600 people fired from the agency. HHS said some people mistakenly received RIF notices because of coding errors in their job classifications. Employees reinstated include those who produced CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, along with some people working on infectious disease outbreaks. CDC’s Washington office, employees at the office of the director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, and employees at the division of violence prevention policy will not be rehired, nor will terminated SAMHSA staff.
• The largest federal employee union has sued the administration, arguing that a RIF during a shutdown is illegal.

Why it’s important: Health agencies had already been battered in recent months by previous layoffs, and this further reduces their ability to perform critical public health work.

• In January of this year, SAMHSA employed around 900 people. Nearly half the staff remain after layoffs in the spring and the latest round of firings.