Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. publicly announced a plan to restructure the workforce of HHS.
The plan promised to save $1.8 billion per year in taxpayer funds by downsizing from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees.
"Over time, bureaucracies like HHS become wasteful and inefficient even when most of their staff are dedicated and competent civil servants," Secretary Kennedy said in an HHS press release. "This overhaul will be a win-win for taxpayers and for those that HHS serves."
About 10,000 HHS employees were issued reduction-in-force notices.
Of these, about 3,500 were FDA employees, about 2,400 were CDC employees, about 1,200 were NIH employees, and about 300 were CMS employees.
A coalition of unions and nonprofits challenged the administration's authority to carry out mass reduction-in-force notices.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston issued temporary restraints followed by a preliminary injunction, which paused the implementation of many reduction-in-force notifications.
Nineteen states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit, arguing that the HHS restructuring and may layoffs are unconstitutional.
Several HHS employees filed lawsuits and administrative appeals.
The lawsuits alleged that several employees who were terminated in April had received reduction-in-force notices containing incorrect information, including incorrect job locations and job descriptions.
Many of the employees that were laid off in April were reinstated.
Over 400 CDC staff members reported receiving emails that said their reduction-in-force notifications had been revoked. Even with many employees reinstated, the CDC's overall workforce was reduced 24% since January.
Federal Rhode Island Judge Melisa DuBose issued a preliminary injunction, blocking HHS from finalizing mass layoffs and moving forward with further reorganization.
“The Executive Branch does not have the authority to order, organize, or implement wholesale changes to the structure and function of the agencies created by Congress,” she wrote in the decision.
During the prolonged federal government shutdown, the White House ordered reduction-in-force notices at multiple agencies.
HHS was slated to terminate over 1,110 employees.
HHS employees that were laid off during the October shut down were told to return to work.
The 954 employees who had received reduction-in-force notices were to receive retroactive pay for the entire shutdown period.
