By Julie Steenhuysen
(Reuters) -The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reinstating some 450 employees laid off under the Trump administration’s massive reduction of the federal workforce, a government spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The employees had worked for the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention, the National Center for Environmental Health, the Immediate Office of the Director and the Global Health Center (GHC), according to Fox News. A spokesperson for the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department, which oversees the CDC, confirmed the report.
Their work includes oversight of lead poisoning prevention, toxic chemical spills, air quality as well as global disease surveillance, according to the CDC’s website.
Many of the employees were part of the mass layoffs of 10,000 staffers at U.S. health agencies announced in April by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk to shrink the federal government and slash spending. Some 2,400 CDC jobs were slated for cuts under the plan.
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr later said that some of those roles would be reinstated after an outcry over the potential for increased risks to public health.
In an email from Thomas Nagy of HHS seen by Reuters, employees were told that their reduction in force or RIF notices had been revoked and that they should contact their immediate supervisor with questions.
Some of the reinstated employees were from the CDC’s Lead Poisoning Prevention and Surveillance Branch, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. That program had been scheduled to be included in a new HHS division called the Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; editing by Michele Gershberg and Diane Craft)
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