What is happening at these agencies is absolutely crazy. National parks are understaffed and worried about the upcoming season.
It seems the admin just wants to gut everything, and the only reason to me seems privatization. Make all these agencies dysfunctional, tell people look how bad<insert govt. agency here> is, let's get bids from private companies that can do a better job at <x> dollars.
In my state (Idaho) there "seems" to be a big push to defund and disrupt the local school systems, libraries [1] and community college board of trustees [2].
There is also legislation that keeps attempting to be pushed to allow public funding to parents who have their kids in private schools [3]
This is all part of the "Redoubt" movement [4]. Which sadly...even though I am living literally in the same town as some of the major players I had never heard of it until a friend from Germany sent me a link.
I later realized it all made sense when you look at everything as a distinct "movement" instead of "motivated individuals" who were disrupting all these public services.
Looks like its not just health-related agencies. Many/most people hired by US government agencies in the last two years seem to be being let-go. Some of them will be tech workers, but also engineers, scientists, clinicians, administrators, rangers, educators. People who use this site.
"Some 280,000 employees out of the 2.3 million member civilian federal workforce were hired in the last two years, with most still on probation and easier to fire, according to government data."
"About 1,200 to 2,000 workers at the Department of Energy were laid off, including hundreds of employees from the office that oversees the nuclear stockpile, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday."
Looks like absolute carnage, and its hard to see how the US government is going to maintain its operational capacity. As for the CDC being gutted, better hope these bird flu and measles outbreaks don't do a covid.
Dude has been department head for a day? Do we have such little faith that we judge a person before a single stroke of the pen? While historical actions do speak loud, having a bad past does not mean you are a bad person. Nor does it mean your policies will reflect your personal beliefs. There have been tons of individuals who set aside their beliefs and done a fantastic job.
> Many/most people hired by US government agencies in the last two years seem to be being let-go.
Could read into this a few ways. People joined who were eager to be part of tackling how the US prepares for and manages the next pandemic (which was uh, how do you say...an unpopular event with this administration), or people who may have been hired while DEI initiatives were having their moment. Both cases feel like vengeful targeting.
Regardless of which camp you're in, you can't ignore the collateral damage from this. What a very troubling time for the US.
Or its just everyone who accepted a federal job to put food on their family table or to perform public service. It's all federal jobs, not just health as in this article, where those that are hired within the last 1-2 years are being summarily fired. Without consideration of performance or need.
> One high-level researcher who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the NIH has effectively shut down a highly competitive intramural research program for undergraduate degree holders before they start graduate or medical school. It’s responsible for the next generation of leaders in biomedical sciences, the researcher said: “These are the best and the brightest to get their training and become world class scientists to compete with China.” The program had about 1,600 people in it last year; more than 1,000 positions will not be filled, the person said.
Virginia will be the place to watch. Northern Virginia is the home to many federal workers. Over 145k federal civilian employees not to mention contractors.
They probably caught wind of a bad jobs report upcoming and so they're trying to cover it up with mass federal layoffs and say that's the reason it's bad. That would be par for the course for these people, wouldn't it?
We need to change the laws making it difficult to fire federal employees, so that we can fire low performers instead of just based on seniority. Previous corrupt laws were passed to only allow firing junior employees, not senior. So this is the only way to shrink the federal government at this point.
Make the federal government accountable and allow terminations based on performance.
> We need to change the laws making it difficult to fire federal employees, so that we can fire low performers instead of just based on seniority.
Documented individual bad performance and misconduct are the (only, basically) reasons firing nonprobationary civil servants on an individual basis is allowed, seniority is an issue with general reductions in force because of elimination of functions, but isn't the controlling factor in for cause, performance or misconduct, firings.
It is, however, illegal to fire civil servants arbitrarily and invoke notional “bad performance” as an excuse; unlike in the private sector, there is a defined process that has the force of law and Constitutional due process rights behind it.
Readit News
It seems the admin just wants to gut everything, and the only reason to me seems privatization. Make all these agencies dysfunctional, tell people look how bad<insert govt. agency here> is, let's get bids from private companies that can do a better job at <x> dollars.
I hope this is not the case.
In my state (Idaho) there "seems" to be a big push to defund and disrupt the local school systems, libraries [1] and community college board of trustees [2].
There is also legislation that keeps attempting to be pushed to allow public funding to parents who have their kids in private schools [3]
This is all part of the "Redoubt" movement [4]. Which sadly...even though I am living literally in the same town as some of the major players I had never heard of it until a friend from Germany sent me a link.
I later realized it all made sense when you look at everything as a distinct "movement" instead of "motivated individuals" who were disrupting all these public services.
[1] https://cdapress.com/news/2024/jul/05/my-turn-are-we-losing-... [2] https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/accreditation... [3] https://idahoea.org/news/competing-voucher-proposals-first-b... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Redoubt
"Some 280,000 employees out of the 2.3 million member civilian federal workforce were hired in the last two years, with most still on probation and easier to fire, according to government data."
"About 1,200 to 2,000 workers at the Department of Energy were laid off, including hundreds of employees from the office that oversees the nuclear stockpile, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday."
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/thousands-fired-trump-musk-...
Looks like absolute carnage, and its hard to see how the US government is going to maintain its operational capacity. As for the CDC being gutted, better hope these bird flu and measles outbreaks don't do a covid.
> As for the CDC being gutted, better hope these bird flu and measles outbreaks don't do a covid.
With RFK in the lead would it honestly matter how many staff they have?
Could read into this a few ways. People joined who were eager to be part of tackling how the US prepares for and manages the next pandemic (which was uh, how do you say...an unpopular event with this administration), or people who may have been hired while DEI initiatives were having their moment. Both cases feel like vengeful targeting.
Regardless of which camp you're in, you can't ignore the collateral damage from this. What a very troubling time for the US.
> One high-level researcher who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the NIH has effectively shut down a highly competitive intramural research program for undergraduate degree holders before they start graduate or medical school. It’s responsible for the next generation of leaders in biomedical sciences, the researcher said: “These are the best and the brightest to get their training and become world class scientists to compete with China.” The program had about 1,600 people in it last year; more than 1,000 positions will not be filled, the person said.
https://virginiamercury.com/2025/02/05/virginia-moves-to-pro...
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Make the federal government accountable and allow terminations based on performance.
Documented individual bad performance and misconduct are the (only, basically) reasons firing nonprobationary civil servants on an individual basis is allowed, seniority is an issue with general reductions in force because of elimination of functions, but isn't the controlling factor in for cause, performance or misconduct, firings.
It is, however, illegal to fire civil servants arbitrarily and invoke notional “bad performance” as an excuse; unlike in the private sector, there is a defined process that has the force of law and Constitutional due process rights behind it.
What is likely illegal vs what is actually the presidents prerogative? Or is it all a test to find that boundary?