Thousands of federal workers are getting layoff notices as the Trump administration’s sweeping cost-cutting measures reverberate across the government, though some agencies have reportedly been informing employees working on nuclear security, bird flu or other critical functions they’ll actually keep their jobs.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump looks on during Turning Point USA's AmericaFest at the Phoenix ... [+]
The Food and Drug Administration began telling employees—including medical device reviewers and food safety reviewers—their firings had been rescinded Friday night after receiving pushback from at least one trade group advocating for products to be reviewed by scientists and saying wait times were already too long, NBC News reported Monday, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
At least 50 people who were fired from the National Park Service are being rehired, and the government promised to hire 7,700 seasonal positions—an increase compared to recent years—the Associated Press reported, after the NPS laid off an estimated 1,000 workers as part of the federal downsizing effort.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a statement reported by NBC News on Tuesday it mistakenly fired “several” employees assigned to the federal response against the H5N1 bird flu virus, noting it will be “working to swiftly rectify” the firings of the frontline public safety positions monitoring the spreading illness.
Last week, officials reportedly tried to reinstate some fired employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees nuclear weapons—but NBC News reports the agency’s leaders had no good way to contact and inform some of them of their rehiring.
An employee at the NNSA told NPR on Thursday about 300 members of the agency’s 1,800-person staff were being laid off, though a spokesperson for the Energy Department told The New York Times fewer than 50 people had been fired.
About 950 employees of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Indian Health Service were told on a phone call Friday afternoon they were being laid off, but hours later they were told the layoffs were rescinded, Indian Country Today reported.
Newly confirmed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly verbally rescinded the layoffs after lawmakers and nonprofit groups expressed concern about the abrupt layoffs of so many workers at the service, tasked with providing health care for American Indians, Alaska natives and native Hawaiians.
Separately, a federal judge on Tuesday ordered Cathy Harris be reinstated to lead the Merit Systems Protection Board—a group that works to “protect Federal merit systems against partisan political and other prohibited personnel practices”—determining President Donald Trump went beyond his authority in firing Harris, who was given no reason for her termination and is only able to be removed “for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
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Employees at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston were informed Tuesday night around 5 p.m. local time they were exempt from the “impending layoff plan,” The Houston Chronicle reported. It was widely expected earlier on Tuesday that about 1,000 NASA employees would be laid off, and NASA told Axios in a statement it was, “complying with the guidance and direction provided by OPM,” but said it would be “premature to discuss the impact to our agency at this time.” It’s unclear if the decision to exempt NASA employees from the mass federal layoffs is a permanent decision or temporary reprieve, SpaceNews.com reported.
It’s unclear. The NNSA oversees nuclear weapon development in the U.S., and “works to reduce the global danger from weapons of mass destruction.” The layoffs came at a precarious time for the agency as it works to ensure the U.S. has the updated infrastructure it requires for its nuclear research and development, The New York Times reported. Last February, then-NNSA administrator Jill Hruby said the agency was “being asked to do more than at any time since the Manhattan Project,” and the Times reported Congress has expressed concerns about the workforce and staffing challenges at the agency.
Kennedy has not spoken publicly on the reversal, but layoffs at the Indian Health Service were reportedly set to impact doctors, nurses, dentists and more and would have “devastate(d) the Indian Health Service’s ability to provide services for patients and make an already dire situation worse,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement. Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., also expressed concerns about the layoffs, saying they would “have a grave impact on access to care for millions of Native Americans.” A coalition of 16 tribal organizations said in a statement to the Office of Personnel Management the layoffs could have “unintended life or death consequences” for tribal citizens, and said “the loss of Federal employees providing direct services to Tribal communities would be catastrophic,” according to Indian Country Today.
The federal layoffs appear to be driven by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, with the Trump administration quickly enforcing mass layoffs across the government, with notable exceptions thus far at the Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security. Agencies including the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Energy, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Forest Service and the Federal Aviation Administration have been hit with mass layoffs as of Monday. In addition to the layoffs, the Trump administration sent federal workers a buyout offer to voluntarily leave with pay through September, though only a reported 75,000 workers took it before the offer expired—which is about half the amount of the federal workforce that quits or retires annually.
Whether the federal government tries to rescind more firings. Thousands of probationary employees are being targeted by the administration’s layoffs, and it’s unclear if all the firings the administration is implementing are legal. A number of lawsuits have been filed over firings, including one alleging the administration could not put thousands of employees with the United States Agency for International Development on leave, and one by eight inspectors general, who argued their terminations as federal agency watchdogs violated federal rules.
Here’s Where Trump’s Government Layoffs Are—As Firings At FAA Begin (Forbes)
Trump Fired, Then Unfired, National Nuclear Security Administration Employees. What Were Their Jobs? (The New York Times)
Trump administration wants to un-fire nuclear safety workers but can’t figure out how to reach them (NBC News)