Notice of layoffs went into effect this past weekend for employees at the Food and Drug Administration.
Neither the FDA nor the Trump administration have released news about the layoffs, but employees of the FDA said they received notice on Saturday that their jobs have been eliminated, according to a report from the Associated Press.
Similar layoffs have hit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where new hires and probationary employees are being terminated. Probationary status covers employees who are in their first three years with the agency.
It is not clear what employees have been terminated at the FDA, but some reports say that staff at the agency’s food safety centers are affected.
The FDA has 18,000 employees across all 50 states. That number includes staff responsible for reporting on food recalls and for the investigation of foodborne illness outbreaks.
The layoffs at the CDC also appear to involve staff who investigate foodborne illnesses. The Trump Administration apparently wants to terminate all CDC employees who are on limited time contracts. But, as yet the contracted employees have not been affected, apparently because their contracts were already budgeted in the last fiscal year.
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