Correction Notices Sent to Epidemic Intelligence Service Team and Others
600 Employees Actually Laid Off
As the 'shutdown' (Shut Down·temporary suspension of government work) crisis continues, the Donald Trump administration notified a large number of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) employees of mass layoffs, only to later retract many of those notices, causing confusion, according to reports from CNN and the New York Times (NYT) on October 12 (local time).
According to CNN and the NYT, on the night of October 10, the Trump administration sent layoff notices to about 1,300 CDC employees. The following day, October 11, 700 of those employees received correction notices stating that they were "not subject to layoff."
Andrew Nixon, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, stated, "Employees who received the erroneous notices were never actually laid off by the agency, and all have been informed that they are not subject to the workforce reduction."
The employees who received these erroneous notices included members of the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), who are the first to respond in the event of an outbreak, as well as the team responsible for publishing the CDC's flagship academic journal, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), staff from the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, the Center for Global Health, and the Center for Public Health Infrastructure.
A Department of Health and Human Services official explained that the mistaken layoff notifications were sent due to a coding error in the mass distribution of layoff letters. However, it was reported that about 600 of the employees who received the layoff notices were actually laid off.
With the shutdown entering its tenth day, the Trump administration has indeed begun the process of laying off federal employees.
Russell Vought, Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), announced on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that "the federal Reduction in Force (RIF) has begun."
The Washington Post (WP), citing documents submitted by the OMB to the court, reported that as a result of this action, more than 4,100 federal employees, including those at the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Health and Human Services, received layoff notices. The WP noted, "The departments subject to workforce reduction are those that handled work conflicting with the Trump administration's priorities."
President Trump and the Democratic Party continue to blame each other for the ongoing shutdown and the mass layoffs. President Trump criticized the Democrats, saying, "Most of those laid off are likely to be Democrats," and accused the Democrats of causing the shutdown. In response, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer pointed out, "Trump and Vought are arbitrarily carrying out layoffs that are not necessary."
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) has filed a lawsuit against the government, demanding an end to "illegal layoffs during the shutdown period."
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