Groups Push Back on CDC Layoffs as Government Shutdown Continues

Editor's Note: Read more about what the ongoing government shutdown means for food safety and agencies like the CDC, FDA and USDA here. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the American Society for Nutrition and the American Federation of Government Employees are among those speaking out against the latest mass layoffs at the CDC during the government shutdown, citing abuse of power and warning of the risk to public health.

The Trump administration issued reduction-in-force (RIF) notices to more than 4,000 federal employees Oct. 10, including more than 1,300 at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents more than 800,000 federal workers.

The next day, the administration rescinded about 700 of these layoffs, according to AFGE. A government official told NBC News the employees received “incorrect notifications” due to “a glitch in the system.”

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) first began threatening mass firings of federal employees in the event of a government shutdown in a memo originally obtained by Politico Sept. 24, prompting a lawsuit filed by AFGE and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Sept. 30.

On Oct. 1, the U.S. federal government shut down, as lawmakers were unable to come to an agreement on a bill that funds the government. About 750,000 federal employees have been furloughed during the shutdown, estimated OMB.

Trump said Oct. 2 that he was meeting with OMB Director Russ Vought “to determine which of the many Democrat agencies, most of which are a political scam, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent.”

These latest firings follow mass layoffs that started earlier this year, when about 10,000 full-time employees were cut from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) — including food safety professionals at the USDA, FDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — in a restructuring plan ordered by the Trump administration in March.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro Slams ‘Abuse of Power.’

House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), a longtime food safety advocate, spoke out against what she described as “the destruction of the CDC,” calling Vought’s attempted mass firing of federal employees “a corrupt abuse of power.”

“OMB Director Russ Vought is continuing his vendetta against the American people — this time by firing CDC experts whose job is to protect our communities from infectious disease outbreaks and the epidemic of chronic disease,” said DeLauro in an Oct. 11 statement. “The layoffs carried out last night at CDC are not only illegal — they are dangerous. The dismantling of CDC will leave every community in this country less safe.”

DeLauro highlighted CDC’s disease surveillance efforts and the agency’s role in safeguarding public health.

“Without it, our collective safety is at risk,” she said.

Among those who received reduction-in-force (RIF) notices are members of the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, experts in chronic disease and global health and staff who produce the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, CDC’s publication that provides information about outbreaks to the public health and medical communities, said DeLauro.

She decried the mass layoffs, stating that Vought “has been tormenting the federal workforce for months.”

Recent taunts include an AI-generated video shared by Trump on social media on the second day of the shutdown, depicting Vaught dressed as the Grim Reaper wielding his scythe throughout Washington, D.C., accompanied by the lyrics, “Russ Vought is the reaper, he wields the pen, the funds and the brain. Here comes the reaper, Dems you babies, here comes the reaper.”

“[Vaught] has said openly he wants American workers employed by the government to be ‘traumatically affected,’” said DeLauro, referencing Vaught’s speech during a 2023 Center for Renewing America event.

“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” Vaught said in his 2023 speech. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can't do all of the rules against our energy industry, because they have no bandwidth financially to do so. We want to put them in trauma.”

Federal Judge Halts Firings.

On Oct. 15, Judge Susan Illston from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ordered the Trump administration to immediately halt the mass firing of federal employees initiated since the shutdown.

AFGFE and AFSCME filed a lawsuit Sept. 30 asserting that the OMB and Vought violated the law by threatening to engage in the mass firing of federal workers during a shutdown. The lawsuit also names as defendants the Office of Personnel Management and Director Scott Kupor, which it alleges issued unlawful instructions that federal employees may perform work during the federal government shutdown to carry out mass RIFs.

On Oct. 4, the unions filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to block the threatened terminations and followed that with a supplemental motion for immediate relief once the layoffs started on Oct. 10.

Illston issued a temporary restraining order at the conclusion of an emergency hearing Oct. 15. She ordered the administration to provide detailed information on the RIF notices it has issued so far, and she scheduled a hearing for Oct. 28 where attorneys for the unions and administration will present their arguments.

In her written order, Illston said the administration is attempting to overturn congressional mandates by firing workers while the government is shut down, and she admonished the administration’s attorney for failing to make any argument as to the legality of the proposed terminations.

“At the hearing, counsel for defendants refused to answer the question of whether or not defendants’ action are legal, instead saying that defendants were ‘not prepared’ to address the merits today,” she wrote.

Illston added that the unions are likely to prove that the administration’s issuance of RIF notices to more than 4,000 federal employees during the shutdown is illegal, exceeds its authority, and is arbitrary and capricious. The judge ordered the administration to issue no further RIF notices and to take no action to enforce the RIF notices it has already issued in offices at the defendant agencies where the unions represent employees.

AFGE and AFSCME are represented by Altshuler Berzon LLP, the Democracy Defenders Fund and Democracy Forward.

“The administration’s move to fire thousands of federal employees who are already going without pay during the government shutdown is not only cruel but unlawful,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley. “These are dedicated public servants who keep our nation running — protecting public health, supporting education, ensuring fair housing and driving economic growth. We are pleased with the court’s ruling halting these unlawful terminations and preventing the administration from further targeting hardworking civil servants during the shutdown.”

American Society for Nutrition Urges Administration to Reinstate CDC Staff.

The American Society for Nutrition(ASN) called on the administration to immediately rescind the firings of CDC National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) employees, whose work ASN said is essential to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

“The recent layoffs of the entire planning branch within CDC's Division of Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys threaten future NHANES cycles and the nation's ability to monitor and understand critical health and nutrition trends,” said ASN in an Oct. 15 statement. “These staff are responsible for designing and coordinating NHANES, a vital survey that links diet, health behaviors and major health outcomes affecting millions of Americans.”

NHANES assesses the health and nutritional status of adults and children across the United States through a combination of interviews, physical examinations and laboratory tests. The survey collects data on demographic, socioeconomic, dietary and health-related factors, as well as medical, dental and physical measurements. Although NHANES is operated by the CDC's NCHS, its data are widely used by multiple federal agencies, researchers and private sector companies, said ASN.

NHANES data are used to guide federal policymaking in areas including food labeling, food fortification, food safety, dietary guidance, tracking progress toward national nutrition and health objectives and establishing nutrition research priorities. The survey influences billions of dollars in federal investments, said ASN, and is essential to nutrition and health research, policy and programs.

Some examples of how NHANES data are used include:

• Identifying food, nutrition, and health needs to support longevity and reduce chronic diseases among the U.S. population.
• Characterizing eating patterns, food preferences, and dietary intake for use by public health officials, commodity groups, infant formula manufacturers and researchers.
• Informing national nutrition policy, including the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and Dietary Reference Intakes.
• Supporting applications beyond nutrition, including the development of medications and growth charts.

“ASN stresses that NHANES is essential to the nation's health and nutrition research enterprise,” said the society. “The survey cannot continue without the expertise of the CDC NCHS Division of Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys Planning Branch staff who design, plan and coordinate each survey cycle. Without them, this foundational resource and the evidence it provides for science, policy and public health are at risk.”