Federal employees in mental health and disease control were among
targets in weekend firings
[October 14, 2025]
By ALI SWENSON and JONEL ALECCIA
NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of federal employees working on mental health
services, disease outbreaks and disaster preparedness were among those
hit by the Trump administration's mass firings over the weekend, current
and laid-off workers said Monday, as the administration aimed to
pressure Democratic lawmakers to give in and end the nearly
two-week-long government shutdown.
The government-wide reduction-in-force initiative that began Friday
roiled the massive U.S. Department of Health and Human Services just six
months after it went through an earlier round of cuts and as many
staffers already were disconnected from work because of the shutdown.
The situation turned even more chaotic over the weekend, when more than
half of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees
who'd gotten layoff notices learned they received them in error and were
still employed with the agency.
HHS, through its agencies, is responsible for tracking health trends and
disease outbreaks, conducting and funding medical research, and
monitoring the safety of food and medicine, as well as for administering
health insurance programs for nearly half the country. Among the HHS
agencies facing staff cuts were the CDC, the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, and the Administration for
Strategic Preparedness and Response, or ASPR, according to current and
laid-off employees who spoke with The Associated Press.
Former staffers and health professionals said they were concerned the
layoffs could have negative health impacts and make it difficult for HHS
agencies to fulfill their obligations set by Congress.
HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said the laid off employees were deemed
nonessential. He added the agency is working to “close wasteful and
duplicative entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump
administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.”
Nixon declined to share which HHS agencies saw layoffs or how many HHS
employees were affected. However, a Friday court filing from the Trump
administration gave an estimate, saying about 1,100 to 1,200 of the
nearly 80,000 staffers at HHS were receiving dismissal notices.
CDC is hit with layoffs — and reversals
About 600 workers at the CDC remained fired Monday in conjunction with
the federal government shutdown after hundreds more had originally been
targeted, according to the American Federation of Government Employees
Local 2883, which represents CDC employees in Atlanta.
Of more than 1,300 CDC employees who received reduction-in-force notices
Friday, about 700 later received emails revoking their terminations, the
union said.
The AFGE Local 2883 called the action a “politically-motivated stunt” to
illegally fire agency workers.
“These reckless actions are disrupting and destroying the lives of
everyday working people, who are constantly being used as bargaining
chips,” AFGE President Yolanda Jacobs said in a statement Monday.
A federal health official who spoke on condition of anonymity because
they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media said the
incorrect RIF notices resulted from a glitch in the system.
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Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,
speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 30,
2025, in Washington, as President Donald Trump, left, and Mehmet Oz,
Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, look
on. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Among those targeted for dismissal and then reinstated were the CDC’s
Epidemic Intelligence Service officers, the “disease detectives” who are
deployed to respond to outbreaks that threaten public health, said Dr.
Anne Schuchat, former principal deputy director of the CDC, who said she
was in touch with EIS officers in that situation.
“These are people who go into really scary places,” Schuchat said.
“Usually you think it’s nature that’s going to be giving you a hard
time, the viruses, not the government.”
Mental health services cut in sweeping dismissals at agency
SAMHSA, an agency within HHS devoted to addressing mental illness and
addiction, also saw cuts, according to two employees of the agency with
knowledge of the layoffs who weren't authorized to speak publicly.
While the full scope of the firings wasn’t clear, some of the
departments affected included the agency's Office of Communications and
the Center for Mental Health Services, where dozens were let go from
multiple areas, according to one of the employees.
Within CMHS, one of two branches that oversaw millions of dollars in
grants for community health clinics was mostly terminated, the employees
said.
Dakota Jablon, a public health analyst and former employee of SAMHSA,
said the loss of more staff at SAMHSA, primarily a grantmaking agency,
would have “devastating ripple effects across the behavioral health
field.”
“Even if the grants continue, the loss of experienced staff means those
who remain will be stretched far too thin, often outside their areas of
expertise," she said.
Dr. Eric Rafla-Yuan, a psychiatrist and the chair of the Committee to
Protect Public Mental Health, said staff cuts at SAMHSA could put state
safety nets for people with mental illness at risk, because the agency
provides significant funding and support to state programs.
Latest layoffs build on earlier cuts as HHS looks to restructure
The mass layoffs come six months after thousands of researchers,
scientists, doctors, support staff and senior leaders were either laid
off from HHS or took early retirement or volunteer separation offers.
The department's staff was listed at just under 80,000 employees in a
contingency plan before the government shutdown began, down more than
2,000 from its staffing level earlier in the year.
The cuts are part of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s sweeping
effort to remake the department by consolidating agencies that oversee
billions of dollars for addiction services and community health centers
under a new office called the Administration for a Healthy America. The
plan has been delayed amid ongoing legislation and congressional
pushback.
—
Aleccia reported from Southern California. AP medical writer Mike Stobbe
contributed to this report.
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