The CDC became the latest government organization to suffer Trump’s federal worker layoffs as dozens of employees, including entire departments, were gutted in a Friday-night “massacre.”
The New York Times reports that the layoffs hit “roughly 70 Epidemic Intelligence Service officers,” “high-ranking scientists and the entire Washington office.” The staff of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which reports on emerging infectious threats, was also laid off.
“I regret to inform you that you are being affected by a reduction in force (RIF) action,” reads the email to laid-off employees. “After you receive this notice, you will be placed on administrative leave and no longer have building access beginning Friday, October 10.”
The CDC layoffs mark the most significant of Trump’s promised cuts to shrink the government—with a focus on “Democrat agencies”—as a result of the government shutdown so far. White House budget director, Project 2025 architect, and so-called “Grim Reaper” Russ Vought, 49, ominously declared “RIFs have begun” on X yesterday.
“The CDC is being eviscerated right now,” wrote Dr. Angela Rasmussen on X.
“America is not going to have any kind of outbreak response capacity after tonight. Americans’ health data is no longer secure. Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity.”
The CDC has been a significant target of the Trump administration and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. since January. Kennedy, 71, has worked to reshape the CDC in his image by firing its director and filling the organization with vaccine skeptics.
Other high-ranking CDC officials have resigned in protest of Kennedy’s orders, which included allegedly asking the CDC to rubber stamp the recommendations of his new vaccine panel no matter what it said.
Furthermore, the immediacy of the layoffs goes against rules for such a procedure. Employees subject to an RIF must receive written notice 60 days in advance.
The government’s “Workforce Reshaping Handbook” states: ”An agency must give each competing employee at least 60 days specific written notice before the effective date of the RIF action. The 60-day minimum notice period applies to all RIF actions, including separation, demotion, and furlough. The 60-day notice period is a statutory requirement."
Labor unions sued Vought for violations of the Antideficiency Act in September when federal layoffs during the shutdown were first being floated.
There is no precedent or stated benefit of laying off federal workers during a government shutdown, contrary to the words of Vice President JD Vance, who claimed layoffs were “necessary.”
