Project 2025 Co-Author Takes Reins At OMB; Thousands At HHS May Lose Jobs

The New York Times: Senate Confirms Russell Vought As Office Of Management And Budget Director 
The Senate voted along party lines on Thursday to confirm Russell T. Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget, putting in place one of the most powerful architects of President Trump’s agenda to upend the federal bureaucracy and slash spending that the administration thinks is wasteful. In speeches, Mr. Vought made clear that he relished the opportunity to overhaul the ranks of career federal workers that Mr. Trump views as part of the “deep state.” (Rappeport, 2/6)

Forbes: Is Trump Following Project 2025? How His Executive Orders Compare To Controversial Policy Proposals
Trump has long distanced himself from the controversial policy blueprint Project 2025, but is still taking steps that reflect its policy proposals. (Durkee, 2/6)

The latest on the personnel changes —

AP: Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Plan Offering Incentives For Federal Workers To Resign
A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s plan to push out federal workers by offering them financial incentives, the latest tumult for government employees already wrestling with upheaval from the new administration. The ruling came hours before the midnight deadline to apply for the deferred resignation program, which was orchestrated by Trump adviser Elon Musk. (Megerian, Binkley and Tau, 2/6)

Politico: Decision Day For Federal Workers 
It’s the final day that federal employees can take a resignation offer, but some HHS employees aren’t biting. ... A Wednesday email from HHS to its employees and viewed by Pulse offered early retirement to staff who are at least 50 with 20 years of service or employees with 25 years of service. According to media reports, around 40,000 federal employees across the government have accepted the offer so far. But it’s unclear how many health agency employees the 40,000 includes. Two federal health agency employees, granted anonymity to speak freely, told Pulse that they won’t take the offer nor have they heard that other colleagues would take it. (Cirruzzo and Hooper, 2/6)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: Chaos Continues In Federal Health System
The Senate has yet to confirm a Health and Human Services secretary, but things around the department continue to change at a breakneck pace to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders. Payment systems have been shut down, webpages and entire datasets have been taken offline, and workers — including those with civil service protections — have been urged to quit or threatened with layoffs. Meanwhile, foreign and trade policy changes are also affecting health policy. (Rovner, 2/6)

From HHS —

The Wall Street Journal: Trump White House Preparing Executive Order To Cut Thousands Of Federal Health Workers
The White House is working on an executive order to fire thousands of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services workers, according to people familiar with the matter. Under the order, the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies would have to cut a certain percentage of employees. (Whyte and McKay, 2/6)

The Washington Post: Health Agencies Told To Rank Some Workers As Fear Of Layoffs Grows 
Leaders across the Department of Health and Human Services have been told urgently to rank thousands of their employees who are in probationary periods, with some managers bracing for layoffs of staff members who have been identified as less essential, according to eight people with knowledge of the matter and emails obtained by The Washington Post. The anxieties have been heightened at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where officials were told to rank 10 percent of their probationary staff as mission-critical, 50 percent as important and 40 percent as not mission-critical, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisal. (Diamond, Sun and Davies, 2/6)

Bloomberg: HHS Asked To Go After ‘Anything Related To Covid,’ Wasteful Spending
The Trump administration is pushing the Department of Health and Human Services to go after “anything related to Covid” and contracts that would “be deemed wasteful by an average citizen if made public,” according to an email sent to Food and Drug Administration staff on Thursday seen by Bloomberg. That includes General Services Administration contracts for services to support diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility offices, telework, swag or advertising spending, the memo said. Staff were asked to report data back on such wasteful spending by Thursday morning. (Griffin, 2/6)

On USAID and the EPA —

The New York Times: Trump Administration To Lay Off Nearly All Of USAID Staff
The Trump administration plans to reduce the number of workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development from more than 10,000 to about 290 positions, three people with knowledge of the plans said on Thursday. he small remaining staff includes employees who specialize in health and humanitarian assistance, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to publicly discuss the cuts. (Demirjian and Kavi, 2/6)

The New York Times: Dozens Of Clinical Trials Have Been Frozen In Response To Trump’s USAID Order
Asanda Zondi received a startling phone call last Thursday, with orders to make her way to a health clinic in Vulindlela, South Africa, where she was participating in a research study that was testing a new device to prevent pregnancy and H.IV. infection. The trial was shutting down, a nurse told her. The device, a silicone ring inserted into her vagina, needed to be removed right away. (Nolen, 2/6)

Politico: EPA Puts 168 Staffers On Administrative Leave
The Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday it placed on leave 168 employees who worked on addressing pollution facing communities of color and low-income and rural areas. The move is the latest and most sweeping action by EPA to implement President Donald Trump’s agenda targeting diversity, equity and inclusion activities across the federal government. (Guillén and Snider, 2/6)