Many federal employees at the National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and others in the Department of Health and Human Services ended their week with dread, waiting to see whether they or their colleagues would be eliminated as part of HHS’s reduction-in-force (RIF) plan. It was widely expected that termination notices for as many as thousands of people would go out late Friday but then … nothing. Same for Saturday and Sunday. The quiet before the storm may now be explained thanks to a Politico story that details an internal feud with HHS and the Department of Government Efficiency officials overseeing the department’s RIF.
Politico writes: A sweeping layoff plan affecting more than 10,000 employees at the Department of Health and Human Services was abruptly delayed Friday over growing backlash with how the process was being orchestrated by Brad Smith, the DOGE lead at HHS, two officials tell POLITICO. At the center of the controversy is Smith’s secretive approach and his attempts to shield one HHS agency he has ties to from the reduction in force process, according to the two officials as well as two others, all granted anonymity to describe the sensitive conversations. The fallout has laid bare internal tensions within DOGE and raised questions about transparency in one of the most consequential restructuring efforts of the federal workforce.
Smith reportedly was trying to save HHS’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, where he worked during the first Trump administration, from severe cuts. But the RIF notices for HHS employees are still expected to be sent out in the coming days.
