 "A protester stands near the US Department of Education headquarters after the agency said it would lay off nearly half its staff. File image/Reuters")
US federal officials are on the brink of a deadline to present their plans on conducting another round of mass firing, which will be part of US President Donald Trump’s sweeping measure of slicing the federal workforce, a move that has already seen thousands of workers leave office.
Lay-offs have already been announced in departments like health under the new round of dismissals. The recent layoffs will follow February’s mass terminations that were conducted at the direction of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).
Since January 20, agency supervisors and managers have mostly been kept uninformed about personnel changes. According to a scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency, many have had to turn to the news media to find out about the status of their own job security.
Mass firings at CDC, FDA begin
The Trump administration began mass layoffs of 10,000 staffers at US health agencies on Tuesday, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation, with security guards barring entry to some employees just hours after they received dismissal notices.
The cuts will affect several high-profile agencies under the Department of Health and Human Services, including the FDA, CDC and National Institutes of Health.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has described the cuts, which combined with other recent departures will reduce total headcount to 62,000 from 82,000, as essential to streamlining a bloated bureaucracy.
“Our hearts go out to those who have lost their jobs. But the reality is clear: what we’ve been doing isn’t working,” Kennedy posted on X, adding that the changes were necessary to focus HHS on its core mission of preventing chronic disease.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsWorkers kept in dark
The New York Times interviewed a number of former and current federal employees who say that they have seen many of their colleagues leave office without proper instruction or guidance from their respective departments.
For instance, last week, the Department of Homeland Security reportedly sent an email to all its employees announcing that it would try deferring layoffs and offer early retirement to employees, adding that their human resource officials would reach out to them with more details on the development. However, one official told NYT that no such correspondence came through.
Since mid-February, thousands of fired probationary workers have been stuck in limbo, as court rulings reinstating them were later paused or overturned. Some who returned this month still haven’t received clear answers from HR about their status or eligibility for deferred resignation.
With inputs from agencies