Chaos as layoffs start to hit HHS agencies

The news late last week that thousands of HHS workers were told they would be placed on administrative leave has been followed by reports that at least some of those notices have been rescinded.

The reduction in force (RIF) layoffs have affected employees across "multiple HHS divisions" and follow the shutdown of the federal government caused by Republicans and Democrats failing to resolve a standoff on the budget, with people "designated non-essential by their respective divisions" affected.

"HHS continues to close wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump administration's Make America Healthy Again agenda," said a spokesperson for the HHS.

The RIF programme – which comes on top of sweeping job losses at HHS earlier this year – was confirmed in a social media post by Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought on Friday.

The number of HHS workers affected by the RIF notices has not yet been disclosed, although a STAT report suggested that as many as 1,200 were set to lose their jobs, with the CDC hardest hit. That is the second-highest hit among all federal agencies after the Treasury, which is preparing to dismiss nearly 1,500 people.

Shortly after, it reported that the group that produces the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which serves as the mouthpiece for CDC announcements, was decimated by RIF notices, but reinstated almost immediately after HHS leadership realised that the staffers had been let go in error due to "coding errors" in their job classifications.

Other workers reportedly terminated in error and asked to come back include some of those working in the Global Health Center, which is tasked with defending the US against emerging disease outbreaks.

The mismanagement of the RIFs is reminiscent of the main round of HHS layoffs earlier this year, which saw 10,000 people lose their jobs, but also some staffers subsequently re-hired when it became apparent their dismissal would damage agencies' ability to carry out key functions.

President Trump and various administration officials made repeated threats of widespread layoffs in federal agencies as a result of the lapse in funding that follows a shutdown, with Trump calling it an "unprecedented opportunity" to continue a drive to pare down government.

Early on in the shutdown, the President said he would work with Vought to "determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent."

While US government shutdowns are not uncommon, using one as an excuse to terminate workers is believed to be unprecedented.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) quickly filed a supplemental motion in their ongoing lawsuit against the OMB RIF drive, seeking a restraining order on the new round, according to Bloomberg. The suit is arguing that notices violate US legislation by "unlawfully laying off employees during the shutdown and improperly using the shutdown as the basis for the layoffs."

Senior Democrats have also condemned the move. Senator Patty Murray, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a social media post: "Once again: if President Trump & Russ Vought decide to do more mass firings, they are CHOOSING to inflict more pain on people. "Reductions in force" are not a new power these bozos get in a shutdown. We can't be intimidated by these crooks."

Image by Rosy / Bad Homburg / Germany from Pixabay