White House denies any executive orders related to the sweeping health agency are underway. Employees at the Department of Health and Human Services are bracing for layoffs across the vast public health agency, as Donald Trump’s administration instructs federal health officials to rank their essential workers and those who are deemed less essential. Agencies like the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could be forced to cut a certain percentage of employees under the directive, gutting critical public health agencies under the sprawling cabinet-level department.
Leaders were also asked to justify why certain employees should be retained. Those reports were due Thursday. “Indiscriminate cuts will weaken health protection, from drug safety to fighting epidemics,” he said. More than 2 million government employees were facing Friday’s midnight deadline to decide whether to accept the “deferred resignation” offer from the Office of Personnel Management, which offered pay and leave through September 30 with no expectation of work. “You are most welcome to stay at home and relax or to travel to your dream destination. Whatever you would like,” the office website states.
Employees who did not take the offer were not guaranteed they would keep their jobs. Roughly 60,000 government employees had already accepted the buyout before the judge’s ruling. A deadline was moved to Monday, February 10, though the court could intervene and indefinitely delay. A memo on the agency’s website earlier this week noted that nearly the entire USAID workforce would be put on “administrative leave” by the end of the week, with only a small number of “designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs” who would be exempt.
USAID workers abroad, which account for roughly two-thirds of the agency’s staff, will “be offered optional and fully reimbursed return travel to the United States within 30 days,” though “personnel are not required to accept Agency-sponsored travel or to return to the United States within any specific deadline.”. Unions representing USAID workers confirmed to The Independent that the agency’s global workforce could be reduced to fewer than 300 employees. The Trump administration is reportedly backtracking and keeping roughly 600 workers, according to Reuters.
