Editor’s Note: This is a developing story. If you are a dismissed or active federal worker with information to share, please reach out at [email protected].
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is firing up to 5,200 probationary employees today, as part of an unprecedented cutting of jobs across the federal government.
Of the impacted workers, 1,300 are employed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) while a sizeable portion work for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Employees were given four weeks paid administrative leave and notified on the morning of Feb. 14, as first reported by the Associated Press.
“HHS is following the administration’s guidance and taking action to support the President’s broader efforts to restructure and streamline the federal government,” an HHS spokesperson told Fierce Healthcare in a statement. “This is to ensure that HHS better serves the American people at the highest and most efficient standard.”
President Trump, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader Elon Musk have long promised to drastically reduce the workforce at federal health agencies in an effort to fundamentally reshape the federal government.
The CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service workers are among the fired workers, CBS News and others reported.
“They’re top doctors, veterinarians and other health professionals,” said Tom Frieden, M.D., the CDC director under President Obama, on X. “They sign up for a two-year training program to serve the country. Not only is terminating them bad for the country, it’s also a disgraceful violation of a commitment.
The Trump administration is choosing to target probationary workers early in the process because they are easier to fire without violating civil service protections.
A Feb. 11 executive order gave further details on how DOGE would alter the federal workforce. It requires every federal agency to hire “no more than one employee for every four employees that depart.”
Each agency must also develop a “data-driven” plan with a DOGE team lead, ensuring vacancies are not filled if the DOGE team lead deems the position unnecessary. A monthly report will be given to the United States DOGE Service Administrator.
Explicitly mentioned in the executive order are offices that include diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which will be prioritized for reductions in force.
“Staffing cuts of the level described in the President’s executive order will bring about a cascade of consequences for Medicare, Medicaid and other publicly-supported coverage programs—placing at risk the people who rely on those programs for coverage, including children, families, seniors, veterans and people with disabilities,” said Margaret Murray, CEO for the Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP).
“Though we advocate for streamlined and accountable governance, we hold serious concerns that HHS will struggle to uphold its critical responsibilities under such cuts,” she added in a statement. “These reductions risk eroding the agency’s capacity to operate effectively, potentially leading to diminished transparency, slower responsiveness, greater inefficiency, and weakened oversight of the programs it manages.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced layoffs Thursday affecting more than 1,000 federal workers, in a move the Trump administration said would save $98 million per year.
Media reports have also outlined mass firings of probationary employees across other government agencies on Thursday, such as the Department of Education, the U.S. Forest Service, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and even OPM itself.
There are reports of thousands of layoffs at the National Institutes of Health circulating within a subreddit comprised of anonymous federal workers and other social media platforms. Other posts verify the 5,200 target across HHS and say that emails will be sent to those affected Friday afternoon.
As with other executive orders from the administration, the firings are likely to trigger lawsuits from those affected.
Just yesterday, a coalition of state attorneys general sued (PDF) Musk for his role at DOGE and inside federal agencies, equating the tech billionaire to a monarch through “virtually unchecked authority” through his access to sensitive records at the Treasury Department, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), HHS and other agencies.
Another lawsuit (PDF) by anonymous USAID employees outlined Musk’s “slash-and-burn” strategy at agencies to “identify personnel for termination and contracts for freezing” before overhauling whole departments. Earlier this month, the government enacted a federal funding freeze, which was later temporarily halted by the courts.
Ahead of RFK Jr.’s confirmation by the Senate, reports emerged HHS was readying up to layoff probationary workers.
Federal contracts dealt out by HHS have been eliminated over recent weeks, Musk has repeatedly posted on X.
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