NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of federal employees working in mental health services, disease outbreaks and disaster preparedness are among those affected by the Trump administration’s massive layoffs over the weekend, current and laid-off workers said Monday, as the administration sought to pressure Democratic lawmakers to concede and end the nearly two-week government shutdown.
The government’s downsizing initiative that began Friday upended the massive U.S. Department of Health and Human Services just six months after it went through an earlier round of cuts and as many employees were already disconnected from work due to the shutdown.
The situation became even more chaotic over the weekend, when more than half of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees who had received layoff notices learned they had received them in error and were still employed at the agency.
HHS, through its agencies, is responsible for tracking health trends and disease outbreaks, conducting and funding medical research, and monitoring food and drug safety, as well as administering health insurance programs for nearly half of the country. Among the HHS agencies that faced staff cuts were the CDC, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Strategic Preparedness and Response Administration (ASPR), according to current and laid-off employees who spoke to The Associated Press.
Former employees and health care professionals said they were concerned that the layoffs could have negative health impacts and make it difficult for HHS agencies to meet their obligations set by Congress.
HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the laid-off employees were not considered essential. He added that the agency is working to “shut down wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.”
Nixon declined to share which HHS agencies suffered layoffs or how many HHS employees were affected. However, a court document filed Friday by the Trump administration gave an estimate, saying that between 1,100 and 1,200 of the nearly 80,000 HHS employees were receiving layoff notices.
CDC hit by layoffs and reversals
About 600 CDC workers remained laid off Monday in conjunction with the federal government shutdown after hundreds more had originally been targeted, according to the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2883, which represents CDC employees in Atlanta.
Of the more than 1,300 CDC employees who received reduction notices on Friday, about 700 later received emails reversing their layoffs, the union said.
AFGE Local 2883 called the action a “politically motivated stunt” to illegally fire agency workers.
“These reckless actions are disrupting and destroying the lives of ordinary workers, 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 incorrect RIF notices were due to a system glitch.
Among those laid off and later reinstated were officials with the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, the “disease detectives” who are deployed to respond to outbreaks that threaten public health, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, former principal deputy director of the CDC, who said she was in contact with EIS officials in that situation.
“These are people who go to really scary places,” Schuchat said. “Usually you think it’s nature that’s going to give you a hard time, viruses, not the government.”
Mental health services shrink with sweeping agency layoffs
SAMHSA, an agency within HHS dedicated to addressing mental illness and addictions, also suffered cuts, according to two agency employees with knowledge of the layoffs who were not authorized to speak publicly.
While the full extent of the layoffs was unclear, some of the departments affected included the agency’s Communications Office and the Mental Health Services Center, where dozens were laid off from multiple areas, according to one of the employees.
Within CMHS, one of two branches that oversaw millions of dollars in grants for community health clinics was largely canceled, employees said.
Dakota Jablon, a public health analyst and former SAMHSA employee, said the loss of more staff at SAMHSA, primarily a grant-making agency, would have “devastating effects on the entire behavioral health field.”
“Even if grants continue, the loss of experienced staff means those who remain will be forced to overwork themselves, often outside their areas of expertise,” he said.
Dr. Eric Rafla-Yuan, a psychiatrist and chair of the Committee to Protect Public Mental Health, said staff cuts at SAMHSA could jeopardize state safety nets for people with mental illness, because the agency provides significant funding and support to state programs.
Latest layoffs build on previous cuts as HHS seeks to restructure
The mass layoffs come six months after thousands of researchers, scientists, doctors, support staff and senior leaders were laid off from HHS or accepted offers of early retirement or voluntary separation.
The department’s staffing was listed at just under 80,000 employees in a contingency plan before the government shutdown began, more than 2,000 fewer than its staffing level at the beginning of the year.
The cuts are part of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s broad effort to remake the department by consolidating agencies that oversee billions of dollars for addiction services and community health centers under a new office called the Administration for a Healthy America. The plan has been delayed amid ongoing legislation and pushback from Congress.
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Aleccia reported from Southern California. AP Medical Writer Mike Stobbe contributed to this report.