Most of the 80,000 federal officials responsible for researching illnesses, inspecting food and managing medical health and medical health programs, under the command of the US Department of Human Health and Human Services (HHS), received an offer to leave employment in exchange for a payment of up to $ 25,000 as part of the government cuts of US President Donald Trump.
Workers have until 5 pm next Friday to send an answer to voluntary dismissal offer.
The email was sent to the team of the entire department, which includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, National Health Institutes (NIH) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), US Health Surveillance in Maryland.
Mass email was sent to a “broad contingent of HHS employees” days before the agencies guardians present plans to reduce their staff.
HHS is one of government’s most expensive federal departments, with an annual budget of about $ 1.7 trillion that is mainly spent on medical assistance coverage for millions of people registered with Medicare and Medicaid.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s secretary of health, hinted to have deep cut plans on the team. Last year he promised to immediately fire all 600 NIH employees, the country’s biomedical research arm. He was not so far, but in an interview last month, shortly after being sworn in, Kennedy said he wanted to remove some employees from public health agencies.
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“I have a list on my head,” Kennedy said about potential layoffs at the agency. He said some workers “made really bad decisions” about nutritional guidelines.
The Trump government, with the help of billionaire Elon Musk, has been trying to expel federal officials in an effort to cut costs. In January, most federal officials received an eight -month resignation offer. Thousands of probationary employees were also fired in federal agencies, including HHS.
This movement occurs at the time the CDC assists in combating a deadly outbreak of measles in the west of Texas and New Mexico, and parliamentarians are debating deep cuts on Medicaid in the federal budget.
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HHS employees are oriented in the email to contact the local Human Resources office to request voluntary dismissal.
