🚨BREAKING NEWS: May 9th, 2025 - U.S. District Judge Illston issues temporary restraining order (TRO) in American Federation Of Government Employees, AFL-CIO v. Trump! All RIF and reorg plans on hold until next hearing on May 22nd, 2025.🚨
AFGE Local 2883
AFGE 2883 on CDC Staffing Cut through Reductions in Force
On April 1, 2025, RIF notices were issued to civil servants at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Since then, leadership at HHS has repeatedly denied claims that these personnel cuts would impact the front-line, public health work that is the backbone of the CDC mission. AFGE 2883 members, as CDC staff, have experienced first-hand the devastating impact of these personnel actions.
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These data came directly from AFGE 2883 members and from our understanding of the workforce at CDC. You can read more about these data here.​
These cuts were scientific, not administrative and not "fraud, waste, and abuse".
AFGE 2883 recognizes that the work of CDC relies on all members of its workforce, and not only scientific staff. However, leadership at HHS has repeatedly claimed that “the cuts we have made to date are administrative cuts…we have not fired any working scientists”. We find that approximately 1,586 civil servants affected by the RIF were scientists, medical professionals, veterinary professionals, engineers, and other STEM leaders. These roles are essential to the CDC’s core public health mission and account for over 59% of the cuts to the CDC workforce, impacting the agency’s research and response capacity.
Additional details on these cuts, including details within specific job series, are given below.
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These cuts devastated the groups working on topics “prioritized” for the Administration for a Healthy America.
​We have repeatedly heard from HHS leadership that they are “streamlining” and “prioritizing” important topics. However, staff in each of these “priority” units have simply been eliminated, without any ability to transfer programs or ensure that work continues. These cuts, which correspond to key offices in the CDC organizational chart, include:
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Worker health and safety – Nearly the entire workforce was eliminated. These cuts were particularly devastating to CDC staff represented by our partner locals.
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Maternal and child health – Core programs were destroyed.
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Environmental health – Programs reduced by more than half.
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Smoking and tobacco control – no civil servants remain to conduct this work.
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Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) response – Key laboratorians responsible for tracking and responding to STIs outbreaks was completely eliminated.
About these data
The HHS Reduction-in-Force actions took place at the level of branches, resulting in extensive workforce reductions within those units. This report summarizes the impact of these cuts, which specifically reduced the number of civil servants in each unit to zero. The numbers that AFGE 2883 has estimated may not be exact, as cuts were summarized without official reports from HHS. There have been extensive additional losses of personnel through other mechanisms at CDC, including:
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Terminations of fellowship programs
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Terminations of probationary employees
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Deferred Resignation
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Early Retirement Authority
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Voluntary Separation Incentive Programs
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Personnel contracts that were cut, representing other critical supporters of the CDC workforce.
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Non-renewals of typically-renewed positions, such as term employees who were not able to be extended due to hiring freezes.
The impacts of these additional losses are not yet fully described.
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Additional details by Occupational Series​
Group | Number RIFed | Total Civil Servants as of mid-March, 2025 | Percent of the cut belonging to this group |
|---|---|---|---|
Health Scientists (Epidemiologists) | 605 | 3298 | 23% |
Public health program specialist | 347 | 2440 | 13% |
Biologists | 93 | 664 | 3% |
Microbiology | 3 | 405 | <1% |
Medical officers and Physicians | 47 | 361 | 2% |
Statistics | 29 | 236 | 1% |
Chemistry | 13 | 148 | <1% |
Social science | 55 | 141 | 2% |
General engineering | 83 | 123 | 3% |
Mathematical Statistics | 38 | 118 | 1% |
Computer science | 18 | 87 | <1% |
Economist | 26 | 70 | <1% |
Data Science Series | 10 | 65 | <1% |
Nurse | 4 | 46 | <1% |
Electronics Technical | 6 | 35 | <1% |
General physical science | 31 | 31 | 1% |
Industrial hygiene | 26 | 31 | <1% |
Engineering Technical | 30 | 30 | 1% |
Veterinary medical science | 1 | 28 | <1% |
Mechanical engineering | 21 | 27 | <1% |
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