More CDC Staffers Fired in a Confusing Manner

On late Friday, the Trump administration sent layoff notices to approximately 1,300 employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), CNN reported. By Saturday, around 700 were reinstated as they were mistakenly fired due to a coding error on the notices, Health and Human Services said. Approximately 600 staffers remain laid off, according to the American Federation of Government Employees.

It was not clear which departments at the CDC were affected. However, the Trump administration is set to lay off entire offices and hundreds of CDC workers as part of mass job cuts during the federal shutdown, Reuters reported.

On Friday, President Trump vowed to target workers deemed to be aligned with the Democratic Party, CNN reported. Roughly 1.4 million other federal employees have been furloughed or are working without pay, according to a Bipartisan Policy Center review. With the shutdown in its 13^th days, more than 4,000 federal employees have been given layoff notices amid the ongoing impasse. The reduction-in-force moves are being challenged in court, NBC News reported.

Saturday’s CDC layoff turmoil is not the first time the agency has changed course on job cuts. Earlier this year, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. oversaw the dismissal of 2,400 employees, only to rehire 942 of them months later.