NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of federal workers who work in mental health services, disease epidemics and disaster response also fell victim to the Trump administration’s attacks. mass shooting Current and laid-off workers said Monday over the weekend, as the administration aims to pressure Democratic lawmakers to cave in and end nearly two weeks of labor policies. government shutdown.
The government-wide troop reduction plan that began Friday has disrupted the massive U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. early cut And many staff have already been cut off from work due to the shutdown.
The situation became even more confusing over the weekend, when it was discovered that more than half of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees who received termination notices were still employed by the center, even though they received the termination notices in error.
Through its agencies, HHS is responsible for tracking health trends and disease outbreaks, conducting and funding medical research, monitoring food and drug safety, and administering health insurance programs for nearly half the country. HHS agencies facing cuts include the CDC, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the Office of Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), according to current and laid-off employees who spoke to The Associated Press.
Former employees and medical experts said they were concerned that the layoffs could have negative health effects and make it difficult for the HHS agency to meet its mandates established by Congress.
HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the laid-off employees are considered non-essential. The agency added that it is working to “shut down wasteful and duplicative organizations, including those that run counter to the Trump Administration’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ agenda.”
Nixon did not say which HHS agencies had made cuts or how many HHS employees were affected. However, Friday Submission to court A report from the Trump administration says that about 1,100 to 1,200 of HHS’s roughly 80,000 employees have received layoff notices.
CDC suffers layoffs and reversals
American Federation of Government Employees Local 2883, which represents CDC workers in Atlanta, said about 600 CDC workers continued to be laid off Monday, with hundreds more initially targeted as a result of the federal government shutdown.
Of the more than 1,300 CDC employees who received layoff notices Friday, about 700 later received emails reversing their layoffs, the union said.
AFGE Local 2883 called the action a “politically motivated stunt” against illegal fire department officials.
“These reckless actions are disrupting and destroying the lives of everyday working people who are constantly used as bargaining chips,” AFGE President Yolanda Jacobs said in a statement Monday.
A federal health official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media, said the erroneous RIF notifications were the result of a system glitch.
Dr. Anne Schuchat, a former CDC deputy director, said those who were laid off and later reinstated included employees of the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, the “disease investigators” deployed to respond to outbreaks that threaten public health, and who had been in contact with EIS employees in that situation.
“These are people who go to really scary places,” Schuchat said. “Usually you think it’s nature that’s giving you a hard time, the virus, not the government.”
Mental health services are being cut, leading to mass layoffs in government agencies.
SAMHSA, an agency within HHS dedicated to addressing mental illness and addictions, also experienced layoffs, said two agency employees familiar with the cuts who were not authorized to speak publicly.
The full scope of the layoffs was not clear, but dozens of people were laid off from multiple areas, with affected departments including the agency’s public information office and mental health services center, one employee said.
Within CMHS, one of the two branches that administered millions of dollars in grants to community clinics has nearly closed, employees said.
Dakota Jablon, a former SAMHSA employee and public health analyst, said losing more jobs at SAMHSA, which is primarily a grant-making agency, would have “devastating ripple effects across the behavioral health field.”
“Even if the subsidy continues, the loss of experienced staff means that the number of remaining staff will be significantly reduced, and often out of specialty areas,” she says.
Dr. Eric LaFla Yuan, a psychiatrist and chairman of the Public Mental Health Protection Committee, said SAMHSA staffing cuts could jeopardize the state’s safety net for people with mental illness because SAMHSA provides significant funding and support to state programs.
Latest layoffs build on previous cuts as HHS looks to reorganize
The mass layoffs come six months after thousands of researchers, scientists, doctors, support staff and senior leaders were laid off. fired from HHS Or you have been offered early retirement or volunteer separation.
Before the government shutdown began, the emergency response plan listed the department’s workforce at just under 80,000, down more than 2,000 from staffing levels earlier this year.
The cuts are part of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s sweeping effort to rebuild the Department of Health by consolidating agencies that oversee billions of dollars in funding. addiction services and community health centers under a new office called the Healthy America Administration. The plan has been delayed by ongoing legislation and opposition from Congress.
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Alecia reported from Southern California. AP Medical Writer Mike Stobbe contributed to this report.
