HHS Employees Receive Buyout Offer As Agency Looks To Shrink Workforce
Workers who seek voluntary separation could receive up to $25,000. The 80,000 federal workers extended the offer include folks from the CDC, the FDA, and the NIH. They have until Friday to decide. More news is on funding cuts, VA staff cuts, and more.
AP:
HHS Makes $25,000 Buyout Offer To Most Of Its Employees
Most of the 80,000 federal workers responsible for researching diseases, inspecting food and administering Medicare and Medicaid under the auspices of the Health and Human Services Department were emailed an offer to leave their job for as much as a $25,000 payment as part of President Donald Trump’s government cuts. Workers cannot start opting in until Monday and have until 5 p.m. on Friday to submit a response for the so-called voluntary separation offer. (Seitz, 3/9)
NBC News:
Federal Workers Gripped By Mental Health Distress Amid Trump Cuts
In an interview, the 54-year-old suicide prevention case manager with the Department of Veterans Affairs painfully recalled his agonizing journey, which also included beating cancer, as he grappled with a new crisis of his own. The world he turned to for salvation — returning to school at age 46, specifically to become a social worker so he could work in suicide prevention with veterans — was now in turmoil. Like the roughly 2 million workers across the federal government, he is watching his colleagues and the veterans he’s trying to help lose their livelihoods. (Korecki, 3/9)
The New York Times:
Stand Up For Science Rally Sees Mix Of Science, Politics And Anxiety
Shortly before noon on Friday, Dr. Francis Collins, the former director of the National Institutes of Health, stood on the steps below the Lincoln Memorial tuning his acoustic guitar — a “very sweet” Huss & Dalton, he said, with a double-helix of DNA winding down the neck in pearl inlay. The nation’s anxious scientists could use a song. (Burdick, 3/8)
The New York Times:
Trump Administration Sends Politically Charged Survey To Researchers
The Trump administration has asked researchers and organizations whose work is conducted overseas to disclose ties to those regarded as hostile, including “entities associated with communist, socialist or totalitarian parties,” according to a questionnaire obtained by The New York Times. The online survey was sent this week to groups working abroad to research diseases like H.I.V., gather surveillance data and strengthen public health systems. (Gay Stolberg and Mandavilli, 3/7)
AP:
Trump Cuts To NIH Research Funding Halt Duke Projects
Facing the potential loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding, Duke University is preparing for the worst. Like research universities around the United States, the private school in North Carolina’s Research Triangle would see a massive loss from Trump administration cuts to grants from the National Institutes of Health. (Seminera, 3/8)
More on the VA reductions —
The Hill:
Controversy Over VA's Plans To Fire 80,000 Employees
VA officials insist the dismissals won’t damage or delay veterans’ medical care or benefits. VA Secretary Doug Collins, who confirmed the planned firings on Wednesday, maintained that the effort is difficult but necessary. But Democrats complain they have not received any response to inquiries about the dismissals — revealed in a leaked memo on Tuesday — nor to questions about earlier layoffs of several thousand agency employees last month. Among the queries are who will lose their jobs, why, and how the staff changes will impact VA offices and medical centers. (Mitchell, 3/9)
The New York Times:
Chaos At The V.A.: Inside The DOGE Cuts Disrupting The Veterans Agency
Clinical trials have been delayed, contracts canceled and support staff fired. With deeper cuts coming, some are warning of potential harms to veterans. (Rabin and Nehamas, 3/9)
Federal News Network:
VA Exempts Veterans Crisis Line Employees From Return-To-Office Requirements
The Department of Veterans Affairs is granting its Veterans Crisis Line employees a full exemption to its return-to-office requirements. VCL employees have told Federal News Network that most of its workforce are remote employees, and that nearby VA facilities do not have space to accommodate them. (Heckman, 3/7)
More on DOGE and DEI —
AP:
A Look At Amy Gleason, The DOGE Administrator
When her daughter was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease in 2010, Amy Gleason attacked the challenge. She carried binders of medical records to doctors’ appointments across six health systems seeking the best care for juvenile dermatomyositis. She volunteered at a nonprofit searching for a cure. She also started a health care company to create record-sharing software that would make life easier for chronically ill patients and families. (Foley and Slodysko, 3/8)
KFF Health News:
She Co-Founded The Office That Became DOGE. Now, She Sees ‘Irresponsible Transformation’
Jennifer Pahlka is perhaps best known as the founder of Code for America, a widely respected nonprofit that helped formalize the principles of civic tech, a movement leveraging design and technology expertise to improve public access to government services and data. Notably, the organization reimagined the online application for California’s food assistance program, which once had one of the country’s lowest participation rates, transforming it from a 45-minute endeavor requiring a computer to a mobile-friendly process that can be completed in under 10 minutes. (Kwon, 3/10)
Stat:
Google Scrubs 'Health Equity' From Its Website As Trump Attacks DEI
Google recently revised websites and made other adjustments to downplay its commitment to health equity, the latest example of a prominent company repositioning its work following President Trump’s attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion. (Aguilar, 3/10)
