Editor's Note: This is a developing story. If you are a dismissed or active federal worker with information to share, please reach out at [email protected].
Updated: March 4 at 3:07 p.m. ET
The Office of Personnel Management has retroactively edited a Jan. 20 memo to federal agencies, in which the office instructed agencies to send lists of probationary employees to OPM.
OPM illegally ordered federal agencies to fire probationary workers, a federal judge deemed Feb. 27. Revising the memo March 4 suggests OPM is trying to emphasize the department was not dictating who should be fired from each federal agency—a legal distinction that has been scrutinized in other recent lawsuits against the administration.
"Please note that, by this memorandum, OPM is not directing agencies to take any specific performance-based actions regarding probationary employees," the memo now reads. "Agencies have the ultimate decision-making authority over, and responsibility for, such personnel actions."
The old memo said probationary periods are important to assess employee performance and manage staffing levels. In the revised memo, "staffing levels" was swapped out with ensuring a "probationer's conduct and performance have established that the individual will be an asset to the government." OPM also removed two mentions of copying the list of probationary employees from agencies to Amanda Scales, an xAI employee under Elon Musk and chief of staff at OPM.
Last week U.S. District Judge William Alsup granted a temporary restraining order against OPM and Acting Director Charles Ezell, and required the government to notify agencies of the ruling.
“The Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire and fire employees at another agency,” the judge said.
OPM must disclose the participants on a call, where OPM apparently told agencies to mass terminate probationary employees. However, the judge did not issue any ruling to reverse firings or stop future terminations, citing a lack of authority.
“OPM’s direction to agencies to engage in the indiscriminate firing of federal probationary employees is illegal, plain and simple, and our union will keep fighting until we put a stop to these demoralizing and damaging attacks on our civil service once and for all,” said Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing some Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) workers.
In a separate case (PDF), a judge is requiring expedited discovery to occur. Union plaintiffs will be able to question an HHS and a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) representative.
Exclusive: FDA terminations rescinded
Fired Food and Drug Administration (FDA) probationary workers received calls alerting them their termination notices are now rescinded, four people with knowledge of the situation told Fierce Healthcare Feb. 22.
The information was agreed to be shared anonymously out of fear of retribution.
FDA employees started receiving calls late Friday night from the human resources (HR) department. It’s unclear exactly how many workers the department is hoping to reinstate, but early indications suggest hundreds could be asked to rejoin their teams.
Impacted workers are expecting to receive an email with more details and have restored access to their computers by a Monday, Feb. 24 return. But written confirmation has not yet been sent by HR or OPM, the office responsible for sending the ‘fork in the road’ emails urging federal workers to receive a buyout.
Supervisors appear to have been left unaware workers would receive calls to return to work, similar to how they were in the dark surrounding the details of the termination notice process.
Medical device trade association AdvaMed CEO Scott Whitaker has pushed the Trump administration to reverse cuts to the FDA because many fired employees were funded through Medical Device User Fee Amendment (MDUFA) agreements. Said another way, these employees were paid through fees charged to medical device companies, reported Reuters, so the workers are not employed with taxpayer money. Up to 180 fired employees held MDUFA-funded roles.
The FDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Who was fired?
It’s just the latest twist in a chaotic series of events for civil servants across the federal government and HHS.
The nation's most distinguished health agencies fired thousands of probationary workers, starting Feb. 13 and extending into the holiday weekend, in what is becoming informally known among federal workers as the Valentine’s Day Massacre.
The firings began at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, before extending throughout virtually all of the HHS divisions by the end of the weekend, reported numerous media outlets. Impacted workers took to social media to confirm the news.
Unions representing federal workers sued the Trump administration for what the plaintiffs deemed as unlawful firings, but a federal judge sided with Trump Feb. 20. The unions hoped to receive a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to provide relief regarding the impacted probationary workers, any future firings and the 'fork in the road' buyout plan.
Preliminary relief was denied because the case "lacks subject matter jurisdiction" and should instead be brought before the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), the judge said.
Just hours later, the American Federation of Government Employees and other unions sued the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for sending terminations to federal workers with false allegations of poor performance through a template email format. The National Science Foundation told workers they were directed to remove all probationary employees. Health insurance and benefits would be terminated, and they were warned that resigning would mean they are not eligible for unemployment, the lawsuit claims. Some termination notices did not include the employee's name, and many other federal government workers received top performance reviews in prior months.
A judge determined Feb. 27 those workers should not have been fired.
"OPM’s directive that federal agencies terminate these employees en masse, on pretextual grounds, seeks to further the newly elected Presidential Administration’s policy goals of dramatically curtailing the size and spending of the federal government," the plaintiffs said. "But Congress, not OPM, controls and authorizes federal employment and related spending by the federal administrative agencies, and Congress has determined that each agency is responsible for managing its own employees."
Eight former HHS subagency leaders in the Biden administration condemned the decision to unceremoniously fire workers across HHS in a statement released Feb. 17. Among the signees was the former heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the FDA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
"The work of the members of the HHS team is not just important to the health of this country, it is also vital to the economic security of our nation," said the Biden officials. "These individuals are not numbers on a spreadsheet. They are dedicated and passionate public servants who have committed their careers to working on behalf of the American people. We owe them a debt of gratitude, not a pink slip."
Democratic Senators highlighted the impacts the HHS firings will have on public health in the country in a letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
"With the worst flu season in over 15 years resulting in school closures in at least 10 states, an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda, and the growing threat of Avian Influenza, laying off CDC staff will allow more diseases to affect our communities," they said (PDF) in a letter Feb. 19.
President Trump, RFK Jr. and DOGE leader Elon Musk have long promised to drastically reduce the workforce at federal health agencies in an effort to fundamentally reshape the federal government.
“HHS is following the administration’s guidance and taking action to support the President’s broader efforts to restructure and streamline the federal government,” an HHS spokesperson said in statement. “This is to ensure that HHS better serves the American people at the highest and most efficient standard.”
Health agencies halted
The CDC eliminated 1,300 probationary workers. Employees were given four weeks paid administrative leave and notified the morning of Feb. 14, as first reported by the Associated Press. Thousands more were terminated in the initial round of firings on Friday at the National Institutes of Health.
Up to 5,200 employees lost their jobs across HHS, initial reports indicated. They included employees at the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service division, CBS News and others reported.
"They're top doctors, veterinarians and other health professionals," said Tom Frieden, M.D., the CDC director under President Obama, on X. "They sign up for a two-year training program to serve the country. Not only is terminating them bad for the country, it's also a disgraceful violation of a commitment."
Administration officials told the press Feb. 14 only 3,600 employees were fired. Public health experts, providers at the Indian Health Service (IHS) and workers at the CMS were spared, they said. But the reality was far more unclear to employees. One public health analyst, Arielle Kane at the CMS Innovation Center, took to X to lambast Musk and the DOGE project.
“Elon Musk your DOGE minions just fired me and my colleagues at CMMI,” she posted. “We were working on improving maternal health outcomes AT LOWER COSTS so that less pregnant women would die in this county.” In an online interview, she said she was on the phone with a news publication to correct the Trump administration’s claims they limited the scope of the firings. That’s when she received her own termination announcement.
Similar mixed messaging occurred at IHS. The OPM first told IHS the agency wanted 2,200 probationary workers laid off. IHS managed to secure safety for all but 950 employees, despite civil servant protections. But after a delay, those 950 employees had their terminations rescinded by Kennedy, according to Buu Nygren, president of Navajo Nation. Now, 350 nurses, 129 medical assistants, 93 physicians and more positions are deemed essential and protected.
“The Indian Health Service has always been treated as the redheaded stepchild at HHS,” said Kennedy in a statement to Fierce Healthcare. “My father often complained that IHS was chronically understaffed and underfunded. President Trump wants me to rectify this sad history. Indians suffer the highest level of chronic disease of any demographic. IHS will be a priority over the next four years."
By the end of the weekend, federal workers at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), FDA, the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) unit within CMS and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) all announced their involuntary departures on social media.
All told, the fired civil servants at each federal department were responsible for helping combat public health epidemics, research and administer national programs like the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Head Start, and regulate medical devices and artificial intelligence technology, among many other functions. Some workers were fired after hours on the weekend.
Renee Wegrzyn, the inaugural director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) was also fired from her position, reported Fierce Biotech. Upwards of 80 CMS employees in the CCIIO were fired, according to Politico, and two top NIH officials also left the organization, as reported by STAT. FDA Deputy Commissioner Jim Jones resigned following the firings, first reported by FoodFix and Bloomberg.
Why fire probationary workers?
The Trump administration is choosing to target probationary workers early in the process because they are easier to fire without violating civil service protections. These workers may be recently hired, or they could have been promoted or switched into a new role. That does not mean the employees are part-time or on a performance improvement plan—some of those speaking to media shared performance evaluations showing that they were high-performing. Probationary employees across virtually every government department have been fired.
HHS expects to save more than $600 million as a result of the firings, the administration told Politico shortly after the firings. The Trump administration said dismissing more than 1,000 workers at the VA will result in $98 million saved per year.
RFK Jr. addressed HHS workers for the first time in a speech Feb. 18. Without addressing the fact the agency has fired thousands of workers, he tried to thread the line between acknowledging most federal workers as "competent, ethical, caring and idealistic" while decrying the "corrosive power of money" in government institutions.
He said he hoped workers would not pre-judge him based on past comments they've seen, and allow him to turn over all stones, with no topic out-of-bounds, in the name of reversing chronic disease. Further, he said the DOGE team has already uncovered "vast amounts of waste and fraud" and its tech could be applied to HHS to a greater extent.
A Feb. 11 executive order gave details on how DOGE would alter the federal workforce. It requires every federal agency to hire “no more than one employee for every four employees that depart.”
Each agency must also develop a “data-driven” plan with a DOGE team lead, ensuring vacancies are not filled if the DOGE team lead deems the position unnecessary. A monthly report will be given to the United States DOGE Service Administrator.
Explicitly mentioned in the executive order are offices that include diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which will be prioritized for any waves of firings.
“Staffing cuts of the level described in the President’s executive order will bring about a cascade of consequences for Medicare, Medicaid and other publicly-supported coverage programs—placing at risk the people who rely on those programs for coverage, including children, families, seniors, veterans and people with disabilities,” said Margaret Murray, CEO for the Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP).
“Though we advocate for streamlined and accountable governance, we hold serious concerns that HHS will struggle to uphold its critical responsibilities under such cuts,” she added in a statement. “These reductions risk eroding the agency’s capacity to operate effectively, potentially leading to diminished transparency, slower responsiveness, greater inefficiency, and weakened oversight of the programs it manages.”
A “thank you” letter from former Secretary Xavier Becerra and 139 other former HHS workers under President Obama and President Biden was posted to recognize the careers of the terminated workers.
Litigation continues
As with other executive orders from the administration, the firings are likely to trigger an onslaught of lawsuits from those affected. One group, Democracy Forward, has already taken action.
“The administration’s mass termination of employees in their first or second year on the job is an unprecedented and grossly unfair circumvention of the merit principles upon which our civil service is based,” said Michelle Bercovici, a partner with the Alden Law Group, in a statement. ”These hard-working employees should have the opportunity to let their work speak for itself.”
A coalition of state attorneys general sued (PDF) Musk for his role at DOGE and inside federal agencies, equating the tech billionaire to a monarch through “virtually unchecked authority” via his access to sensitive records at the Treasury Department, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), HHS and other agencies. That argument was rejected Feb. 18, when a judge denied a temporary restraining order (TRO) request, partially because of the reliance on media reports as evidence of harm.
"Plaintiffs legitimately call into question what appears to be the unchecked authority of an unelected individual and an entity that was not created by Congress and over which it has no oversight," the judge said. "In these circumstances, it must be indisputable that this court acts within the bounds of its authority. Accordingly, it cannot issue a TRO, especially one as wide-ranging as plaintiffs request, without clear evidence of imminent, irreparable harm to these plaintiffs."
One lawsuit (PDF) by anonymous USAID employees outlined Musk’s “slash-and-burn” strategy at agencies to “identify personnel for termination and contracts for freezing” before overhauling whole departments. Earlier this month, the government enacted a federal funding freeze, which was later temporarily halted by the courts.
Another challenge to the firings and appeal for a temporary restraining order was argued in front of a district judge on Feb. 18, this one brought by federal worker unions against the Trump administration. The judge sided with the defendants two days later, referring the case to the FLRA. More unions sued over the firings just hours later.
Federal contracts dealt out by HHS have also been eliminated over recent weeks, Musk has repeatedly posted on X. The DOGE team updated its spending tracker website Feb. 17, which includes cancelled contracts at HHS and other departments.
This is a developing story.