The Trump administration has begun to make good on its threat to fire federal workers during the government shutdown, with cuts confirmed to affect the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—including more than 600 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after taking into account hundreds of missent termination notices and rescindments.
The reductions in force (RIFs) were confirmed Friday by Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought in a four-word social media post: “The RIFs have begun.” Vought’s office had been threatening the layoffs as a potential consequence of a prolonged shutdown, and Vought himself has long been a vocal proponent of shrinking the federal workforce.
A spokesperson for HHS confirmed that its employees are included in the reductions, though did not specify how many workers or which agencies are being affected.
“HHS employees across multiple divisions have received reduction-in-force notices as a direct consequence of the Democrat-led government shutdown,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
“HHS under the Biden administration became a bloated bureaucracy, growing its budget by 38% and its workforce by 17%. 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.”
The RIFs themselves do no appear to have been conducted as intended. Reporting from multiple outlets over the weekend described hundreds of CDC employees who had receiving notices of their termination in error, with rescindments going out on Saturday.
According to the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), more than 1,300 CDC workers had received RIF notices on Friday, and about 700 received another email rescinding that termination within 24 hours.
Officials speaking with press said the mistake stemmed from a coding error, and highlighted teams at the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report publication, those addressing the measles outbreak and the Epidemic Intelligence Service among those who were called back. On the other hand, the CDC’s entire Washington office appears to have been released.
Yolanda Jacobs, president of AFGE Local 2883, said Monday “the accounts of irreparable harm being done continue to unfold: Human resource workers brought back from furlough and forced to send themselves RIF notices with effective dates of December 8, 2025; CDC mental health professionals who have supported employees affected by the August 8, 2025, shooting attack on CDC’s Atlanta-based headquarters, now finding themselves facing termination. The administration has more than delivered on its promise to traumatize federal employees.”
HHS’ contingency plan for the shutdown saw 32,460 employees furloughed. Mandatory health payment programs like Medicare and Medicaid as well as OIG’s Health Care Fraud and Abuse-related activities have not been interrupted due to the shutdown.
That said, the partial-staffed department was already running with thousands fewer employees due to reduction efforts from the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency earlier this year. Nearly 2,000 had been terminated from the CDC prior to the more than 600 affected this week.
The plans to release employees during a shutdown has already been challenged on legal grounds by government unions. Everett Kelley, national president of AFGE, on Friday called the reductions “disgraceful” alongside broader calls for Congress “to do their jobs” and cut a deal to end the shutdown.
“In AFGE’s 93 years of existence under several presidential administrations—including during Trump’s first term—no president has ever decided to fire thousands of furloughed workers during a government shutdown,” Kelley said in a statement. “AFGE is currently challenging President Trump’s illegal, unprecedented, abuse of power and we will not stop fighting until every reduction-in-force notice is rescinded.”
In a joint statement Monday, the heads of four infections disease associations (the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the HIV Medicine Association, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America) said the CDC’s RIF confusion was “completely reckless” and said cuts to the agency’s core functions and scientific leadership “will cripple the agency that keeps our country safe.”
“Even prior to the latest round of layoffs, clinicians across the country reported dangerous interruptions in access to services including laboratory testing, public reporting and expert analyses of outbreak data and publication of clinical guidelines, all of which directly impact patient care. Additional layoffs will further erode CDC’s ability to perform essential duties and put our country’s health at risk,” they said, calling for a reversal of the firings and for a spending accord in Congress.
Earlier this week the administration floated a belief that it is not required to provide backpay to all furloughed federal workers. The initial days of the shutdown also saw President Donald Trump suggest the funding lapse would give him “unprecedented opportunity” to trim down “Democrat Agencies.”
Meanwhile, the administration took steps to block billions in appropriated federal funds, with the president saying during a Thursday cabinet meeting his administration planned to permanently cut “very popular Democrat programs that aren’t popular with Republicans.”