The Trump administration's efforts to reduce the federal workforce culminated in layoffs at the FDA, affecting mainly probationary employees reviewing food and medical safety. Announced by the Department of Health and Human Services, this decision is part of a broader plan to terminate 5,200 positions across agencies, including the CDC. Reports indicate 700 notices had been issued by Sunday, although the exact total and departments impacted remain uncertain. FDA Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. has been particularly critical of the agency’s practices, intensifying scrutiny regarding public health implications of these workforce reductions.
Probationary employees across the FDA received notices Saturday evening that their jobs were being eliminated, according to three FDA staffers who spoke to The Associated Press.
The total number of positions eliminated was not clear Sunday, but the firings appeared to focus on employees in the agency's centers for food, medical devices and tobacco products.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced plans to fire 5,200 probationary employees across its agencies, which include the National Institutes of Health, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The FDA is headquartered in the Maryland suburbs outside Washington and employs nearly 20,000 people. It's long been a target of newly sworn-in health secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.
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