Dive Brief:
The Trump administration has started laying off federal employees, following through on a threat to further decimate the federal workforce in event of a government shutdown, administration officials have confirmed.
That includes at the HHS, a department spokesperson said. They did not share how many workers are being fired or in what agencies, though said the reduction-in-force is affecting multiple divisions.
Layoffs are not typical during a shutdown, and could further hamper operations at the massive federal healthcare department, which has already lost thousands of employees this year.
Dive Insight:
The U.S. is currently in the second week of a government shutdown, after Republicans and Democrats in Congress failed to reach an agreement over the future of enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans. Stakes were high for a shutdown, with President Donald Trump and Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, promising to use a lapse in funding to terminate more federal employees along with “Democrat” programs.
“HHS employees across multiple divisions have received reduction-in-force notices as a direct consequence of the Democrat-led government shutdown,” HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon told Healthcare Dive over email, blaming the Biden administration for creating a “bloated bureaucracy.”
“All HHS employees receiving reduction-in-force notices were designated non-essential by their respective divisions. HHS continues to close wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda,” Nixon said.
Yet another reduction-in-force, or RIF, would further winnow a workforce that’s been drastically reduced since Trump assumed office in January. The HHS lost thousands of staffers during a RIF this spring that’s being challenged in court. Meanwhile, upwards of 32,000 workers are currently on furlough due to the shutdown.
Moving to permanently terminate federal workers is a significant escalation of normal shutdown procedures. Several unions have already sued the Trump administration for threatening RIFs in advance of the shutdown.
Congressional Democrats slammed the firings on Friday. “A shutdown does not give Trump or Vought new, special powers to cause more chaos or permanently weaken more basic services for the American people, and the simple fact is this administration has been recklessly firing — and rehiring — essential workers all year,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement.
