Consequences of firing government employees - USDA says it accidentally fired officials working on bird flu and is trying to rehire them

[essentialsaltes]

Jennifer Piggott said she was one of 125 probationary Bureau of Fiscal Service employees fired in February for alleged poor performance, despite having received the "highest rating" available during her last review on January 31.

Asked if this made her regret voting for Trump, Piggott said: "Yes I do. To cut the knees off the working-class Americans just doesn't make sense to me. I expected more from President Donald Trump."

Piggott showed CNN the Trump campaign flag she had taken down from outside her house following the firing, and said she has received death threats and had her home egged since speaking out publicly.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

Jennifer Piggott said she was one of 125 probationary Bureau of Fiscal Service employees fired in February for alleged poor performance, despite having received the "highest rating" available during her last review on January 31.

Asked if this made her regret voting for Trump, Piggott said: "Yes I do. To cut the knees off the working-class Americans just doesn't make sense to me. I expected more from President Donald Trump."

Piggott showed CNN the Trump campaign flag she had taken down from outside her house following the firing, and said she has received death threats and had her home egged since speaking out publicly.

I saw that story, oh well. Comments were brutal but...

 

[essentialsaltes]

Military families rocked by Trump’s federal government cuts​

For decades now, the federal government has marketed itself as the employer of choice for military spouses, who are unemployed at five times the national rate despite being more educated than their civilian spouse counterparts.

Military spouse federal employees were told to return to office, until CNN asked the Trump administration​

Many of these spouses were hired specifically for remote work positions, a lifesaver for spouses of active-duty military personnel. Even after the Trump administration issued a return to offices order, a February 12 memo from OPM explicitly exempted military spouses from the order.

But then the Office of Personnel Management sent out a FAQ document last week on “return to in-person work” that said military spouses who live within a 50-mile radius of “an agency worksite” were not exempt from the return to office mandate.

This new guidance, OPM said at the time, superseded the guidance sent on February 12 which explicitly exempted military spouses.

Military spouses then began receiving emails from their agencies that their previous exemptions were rescinded, as a result of the updated OPM guidance.

On Thursday afternoon just before 2:00 p.m., CNN reached out to both OPM and the White House for comment.

At 2:15 p.m. an OPM spokeswoman said “Our guidance was always that military spouses were exempt. We are currently working to revise our FAQs to correct any impression that they were not.”

The FAQ guidance was soon updated to remove the mention of military spouses within a 50-mile radius of an agency office. According to the document properties, the update was made at 2:27 p.m.

When reached for comment, a White House spokesperson initially insisted the story was false, but when asked for comment after OPM changed its guidance, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields replied with a screen grab of OPM’s FAQ document, saying, “this is the updated guidance.”

TL;DR version
They're exempt.
They're no longer exempt if they're within 50 miles of an office.
They're exempt and they've always been exempt.
Whatever else we said, this is the guidance now.

 

[Pommer]

TL;DR version
They're exempt.
They're no longer exempt if they're within 50 miles of an office.
They're exempt and they've always been exempt.
Whatever else we said, this is the guidance now.

Even shorter TL;DR version
[In Ralphie Wiggum voice] “I’m Governmenting!”

 

[Aryeh Jay]

Even shorter TL;DR version
[In Ralphie Wiggum voice] “I’m Governmenting!”

"The doctor said I wouldn't get so many nose bleeds if I keep my fingers out".

 

[essentialsaltes]

Layoffs begin at HHS, including at the FDA and CDC​

Up to 10,000 people are expected to lose their jobs in this round of layoffs, an amount that could significantly alter the department's roles and abilities. That's in addition to the nearly 10,000 who have already left...

At least some employees being laid off were told they were being immediately placed on administrative leave and losing access to their office starting today, April 1.

(Now wait for the April Fools reinstatement letter.)

 

[essentialsaltes]

FDA's top tobacco official removed from post in latest blow to agency's leadership​

In an email to staff, FDA tobacco director Brian King said: “It is with a heavy heart and profound disappointment that I share I have been placed on administrative leave.”

King was removed from his position and offered reassignment to the Indian Health Service, according to a person familiar with the matter who did not have permission to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

King, who joined the agency in 2022, has been vigorously criticized by vaping lobbyists for ordering thousands of companies to remove their fruit and candy-flavored e-cigarettes from the market. During his time at FDA, teen vaping has fallen to a 10-year low.

The Vapor Technology Association, an industry group, has been running ads urging Trump to follow through on a campaign pledge he made to “save the flavored vaping industry.”

Make America Gasp Again

 

[Bradskii]

King was removed from his position and offered reassignment to the Indian Health Service...

The what? Surely not...

 

[essentialsaltes]

The what? Surely not...

The name? A lot of departments retain 'Indian', like the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Many of the recognized tribes also have Indian in their official names.

 

[Bradskii]

The name? A lot of departments retain 'Indian', like the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Many of the recognized tribes also have Indian in their official names.

I guess I'm not used to it. I read 'Indian Health Service' and just thought 'what has he got to do with India?' I might have mentioned this before, but travelling through Arizona few years back and stopping for gas, there was a food outlet advertising 'Indian Food'. We thought, hey - might be different, try some local food, isn't it Navaho around here? Walked in to a delicious smell of curry and Bollywood music pumping out.

 

[essentialsaltes]

HHS layoffs hit Meals on Wheels and other services for seniors and disabled​

At least 40% of staff got layoff notices and many were turned away at the front door Tuesday when they showed up for work at the Administration for Community Living, or ACL, which coordinates federal policy on aging and disability.

The agency funds programs that run senior centers and distribute 216 million meals a year to older and disabled people through the Meals on Wheels program.

every staffer was laid off from the Division of Energy Assistance, according to two employees who lost their jobs on Tuesday, Andrew Germain and Vikki Pretlow. The office runs the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which helps 5.9 million low-income households pay heat and cooling bills and pay for home repairs to boost energy efficiency.

Last week, the announcement of the coming layoffs at HHS said that ACL's responsibilities would go to different parts of HHS.

[Per Project 2025, ACL was going to pick up the responsibilities for special education from the erstwhile Dept. of Ed.]

 

[essentialsaltes]

Fired health workers told to contact dead employee for discrimination complaints​

Some government health employees who were laid off Tuesday were told to contact Anita Pinder with discrimination complaints. But Pinder, who was the director at the Office of Equal Opportunity & Civil Rights at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, died last year.

The inclusion of Pinder’s name in the reduction in force notices reflects the chaos of the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to shed federal workers and was a gut punch to employees who knew her, said Karen Shields, who worked with Pinder.

“They couldn’t have run it past the people at CMS that were at the funeral and knew she died,” Shields said. “This is a lack of communication. There is just a better way to do this.”

 

[BPPLEE]

Fired health workers told to contact dead employee for discrimination complaints​

Some government health employees who were laid off Tuesday were told to contact Anita Pinder with discrimination complaints. But Pinder, who was the director at the Office of Equal Opportunity & Civil Rights at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, died last year.

The inclusion of Pinder’s name in the reduction in force notices reflects the chaos of the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to shed federal workers and was a gut punch to employees who knew her, said Karen Shields, who worked with Pinder.

“They couldn’t have run it past the people at CMS that were at the funeral and knew she died,” Shields said. “This is a lack of communication. There is just a better way to do this.”

She's probably still getting paid. Understandable

 

[Pommer]

She's probably still getting paid. Understandable

She’s probably not taking calls though…what are the furloughed workers to do, who do they call to file their grievances?

 

[A2SG]

She’s probably not taking calls though…what are the furloughed workers to do, who do they call to file their grievances?

They can always conduct a seance.

-- A2SG, maybe they can call Madame Blavatsky to do it....

 

[Belk]

She's probably still getting paid. Understandable

Really? Have you ever experienced being paid without filling out a time card as a government employee?

 

[BPPLEE]

Really? Have you ever experienced being paid without filling out a time card as a government employee?

No, but as a private sector ex employee I have. Kronos overpaid more than $250,000 to employees and ex employees at my last job

 

[Belk]

No, but as a private sector ex employee I have. Kronos overpaid more than $250,000 to employees and ex employees at my last job

OK. I've not worked private sector in a couple decades but the only time I got pay from the government without filling out a time card was in the military. I find the idea that someone dies and they don't bother filling their pocket a bizarre idea. No one would leave gaping holes in their org chart which is the only way I can see for them to receive payment after death.

 

[BPPLEE]

OK. I've not worked private sector in a couple decades but the only time I got pay from the government without filling out a time card was in the military. I find the idea that someone dies and they don't bother filling their pocket a bizarre idea. No one would leave gaping holes in their org chart which is the only way I can see for them to receive payment after death.

It was being sarcastic when I said she was still getting paid

 

[Belk]

It was being sarcastic when I said she was still getting paid

Oh! Humor, no we don't get that here.