What is happening at these agencies is absolutely crazy. National parks are understaffed and worried about the upcoming season.
It seems the admin just wants to gut everything, and the only reason to me seems privatization. Make all these agencies dysfunctional, tell people look how bad<insert govt. agency here> is, let's get bids from private companies that can do a better job at <x> dollars.
In my state (Idaho) there "seems" to be a big push to defund and disrupt the local school systems, libraries [1] and community college board of trustees [2].
There is also legislation that keeps attempting to be pushed to allow public funding to parents who have their kids in private schools [3]
This is all part of the "Redoubt" movement [4]. Which sadly...even though I am living literally in the same town as some of the major players I had never heard of it until a friend from Germany sent me a link.
I later realized it all made sense when you look at everything as a distinct "movement" instead of "motivated individuals" who were disrupting all these public services.
Looks like its not just health-related agencies. Many/most people hired by US government agencies in the last two years seem to be being let-go. Some of them will be tech workers, but also engineers, scientists, clinicians, administrators, rangers, educators. People who use this site.
"Some 280,000 employees out of the 2.3 million member civilian federal workforce were hired in the last two years, with most still on probation and easier to fire, according to government data."
"About 1,200 to 2,000 workers at the Department of Energy were laid off, including hundreds of employees from the office that oversees the nuclear stockpile, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday."
Looks like absolute carnage, and its hard to see how the US government is going to maintain its operational capacity. As for the CDC being gutted, better hope these bird flu and measles outbreaks don't do a covid.
> Many/most people hired by US government agencies in the last two years seem to be being let-go.
Could read into this a few ways. People joined who were eager to be part of tackling how the US prepares for and manages the next pandemic (which was uh, how do you say...an unpopular event with this administration), or people who may have been hired while DEI initiatives were having their moment. Both cases feel like vengeful targeting.
Regardless of which camp you're in, you can't ignore the collateral damage from this. What a very troubling time for the US.
> One high-level researcher who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the NIH has effectively shut down a highly competitive intramural research program for undergraduate degree holders before they start graduate or medical school. It’s responsible for the next generation of leaders in biomedical sciences, the researcher said: “These are the best and the brightest to get their training and become world class scientists to compete with China.” The program had about 1,600 people in it last year; more than 1,000 positions will not be filled, the person said.
Virginia will be the place to watch. Northern Virginia is the home to many federal workers. Over 145k federal civilian employees not to mention contractors.
They probably caught wind of a bad jobs report upcoming and so they're trying to cover it up with mass federal layoffs and say that's the reason it's bad. That would be par for the course for these people, wouldn't it?
We need to change the laws making it difficult to fire federal employees, so that we can fire low performers instead of just based on seniority. Previous corrupt laws were passed to only allow firing junior employees, not senior. So this is the only way to shrink the federal government at this point.
Make the federal government accountable and allow terminations based on performance.
> We need to change the laws making it difficult to fire federal employees, so that we can fire low performers instead of just based on seniority.
Documented individual bad performance and misconduct are the (only, basically) reasons firing nonprobationary civil servants on an individual basis is allowed, seniority is an issue with general reductions in force because of elimination of functions, but isn't the controlling factor in for cause, performance or misconduct, firings.
It is, however, illegal to fire civil servants arbitrarily and invoke notional “bad performance” as an excuse; unlike in the private sector, there is a defined process that has the force of law and Constitutional due process rights behind it.
Most people aren't aware of ARPA-H but the research it funds is important and potentially highly impactful. It takes a DARPA approach of funding "moonshot" type research in the domain of medicine/health. These are projects that are normally very hard to fund because they are trying to solve hard problems rather than result in some immediate commercial application. But a necessary part of the hard science that lays the foundation for future technological breakthroughs. Very sad to see this laid to wasted by some idiots.
> Head of ARPA-H and Biden appointee Renee Wegrzyn told staff Friday morning that she was fired, a source told STAT. The agency, established in 2022 by Biden to work with the private sector on breakthrough medical technology, employs less than 200 workers. Because of the agency’s newness, most employees are considered probationary and could be targeted for layoffs.
Hello, I submitted this. Thanks for your concern. I've been lurking on Hacker News since ~2014 when I was in college. I made an account and started posting because people on the board have something of an interest in biology and genetics (for example this story on cancer detection from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43035147 ) and I wanted to contribute. I posted this because the NIH funds a lot of research related to that and this story reports on a massive change to the NIH, which seemed worthy of discussion.
General normal politics was really never posted to HN since it wasn’t interesting. DOGE/etc very much interesting new phenomenon though and so a valid topic. Wouldn’t mind a discussion topic posted by dang to discuss it, maybe a hn.com/pol/ (only half joking)
> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic
I didn't submit this article, but I did vouch for it. I wouldn't normally do either for a political article.
The lay-offs are apparently not just affecting health agencies but are across the entire range of US government agencies, and are extensive. This will affect a great many people, and I feel very sad for their predicament - but it will also affect the regulatory, economic, and public policy environment in the US, as well as US government funded technology and research. Many people who use this site will be affected, directly or indirectly. As will many of the companies that they work for.
So, apart from the awful human cost, I believe the article is HN-relevant.
avgDev|1 year ago
It seems the admin just wants to gut everything, and the only reason to me seems privatization. Make all these agencies dysfunctional, tell people look how bad<insert govt. agency here> is, let's get bids from private companies that can do a better job at <x> dollars.
I hope this is not the case.
Ccecil|1 year ago
In my state (Idaho) there "seems" to be a big push to defund and disrupt the local school systems, libraries [1] and community college board of trustees [2].
There is also legislation that keeps attempting to be pushed to allow public funding to parents who have their kids in private schools [3]
This is all part of the "Redoubt" movement [4]. Which sadly...even though I am living literally in the same town as some of the major players I had never heard of it until a friend from Germany sent me a link.
I later realized it all made sense when you look at everything as a distinct "movement" instead of "motivated individuals" who were disrupting all these public services.
[1] https://cdapress.com/news/2024/jul/05/my-turn-are-we-losing-... [2] https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/accreditation... [3] https://idahoea.org/news/competing-voucher-proposals-first-b... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Redoubt
andyjohnson0|1 year ago
"Some 280,000 employees out of the 2.3 million member civilian federal workforce were hired in the last two years, with most still on probation and easier to fire, according to government data."
"About 1,200 to 2,000 workers at the Department of Energy were laid off, including hundreds of employees from the office that oversees the nuclear stockpile, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday."
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/thousands-fired-trump-musk-...
Looks like absolute carnage, and its hard to see how the US government is going to maintain its operational capacity. As for the CDC being gutted, better hope these bird flu and measles outbreaks don't do a covid.
SketchySeaBeast|1 year ago
> As for the CDC being gutted, better hope these bird flu and measles outbreaks don't do a covid.
With RFK in the lead would it honestly matter how many staff they have?
jrsdav|1 year ago
Could read into this a few ways. People joined who were eager to be part of tackling how the US prepares for and manages the next pandemic (which was uh, how do you say...an unpopular event with this administration), or people who may have been hired while DEI initiatives were having their moment. Both cases feel like vengeful targeting.
Regardless of which camp you're in, you can't ignore the collateral damage from this. What a very troubling time for the US.
insane_dreamer|1 year ago
> One high-level researcher who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the NIH has effectively shut down a highly competitive intramural research program for undergraduate degree holders before they start graduate or medical school. It’s responsible for the next generation of leaders in biomedical sciences, the researcher said: “These are the best and the brightest to get their training and become world class scientists to compete with China.” The program had about 1,600 people in it last year; more than 1,000 positions will not be filled, the person said.
bloopernova|1 year ago
nickthegreek|1 year ago
https://virginiamercury.com/2025/02/05/virginia-moves-to-pro...
taylodl|1 year ago
unknown|1 year ago
[deleted]
unknown|1 year ago
[deleted]
silexia|1 year ago
Make the federal government accountable and allow terminations based on performance.
dragonwriter|1 year ago
Documented individual bad performance and misconduct are the (only, basically) reasons firing nonprobationary civil servants on an individual basis is allowed, seniority is an issue with general reductions in force because of elimination of functions, but isn't the controlling factor in for cause, performance or misconduct, firings.
It is, however, illegal to fire civil servants arbitrarily and invoke notional “bad performance” as an excuse; unlike in the private sector, there is a defined process that has the force of law and Constitutional due process rights behind it.
softwaredoug|1 year ago
What is likely illegal vs what is actually the presidents prerogative? Or is it all a test to find that boundary?
avgDev|1 year ago
insane_dreamer|1 year ago
> Head of ARPA-H and Biden appointee Renee Wegrzyn told staff Friday morning that she was fired, a source told STAT. The agency, established in 2022 by Biden to work with the private sector on breakthrough medical technology, employs less than 200 workers. Because of the agency’s newness, most employees are considered probationary and could be targeted for layoffs.
stcroixx|1 year ago
SketchySeaBeast|1 year ago
throw16180339|1 year ago
achandlerwhite|1 year ago
kacesensitive|1 year ago
outside1234|1 year ago
itodd|1 year ago
thecopy|1 year ago
lawn|1 year ago
Yes, he was let loose without supervision or code review.
Fun times.
tjpnz|1 year ago
kacesensitive|1 year ago
clamlady|1 year ago
[deleted]
dubcanada|1 year ago
[deleted]
frigidwalnut|1 year ago
soared|1 year ago
> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
andyjohnson0|1 year ago
The lay-offs are apparently not just affecting health agencies but are across the entire range of US government agencies, and are extensive. This will affect a great many people, and I feel very sad for their predicament - but it will also affect the regulatory, economic, and public policy environment in the US, as well as US government funded technology and research. Many people who use this site will be affected, directly or indirectly. As will many of the companies that they work for.
So, apart from the awful human cost, I believe the article is HN-relevant.
greenhearth|1 year ago