Matthew Chapman
February 18, 2025
RAW STORY
'Chickens On Traditional Free Range Poultry Farm' [Shutterstock]
The Department of Agriculture is quickly flailing to rehire the bird flu experts they just "accidentally" fired, NBC News reported on Tuesday.
"Although several positions supporting [avian flu] were notified of their terminations over the weekend, we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters," a spokesperson for the agency told the outlet. "USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service frontline positions are considered public safety positions, and we are continuing to hire the workforce necessary to ensure the safety and adequate supply of food to fulfill our statutory mission."
President Donald Trump and his tech billionaire ally Elon Musk, via the Department of Government Efficiency task force, have moved to institute sweeping cutbacks to both public programs and the federal workforce, much of which is being challenged in litigation — but this is not the first time they accidentally dismissed critical federal workers.
For instance, they are similarly having to rehire officials from the National Nuclear Safety Administration and reportedly had difficulty because they were missing updated contact information for the terminated employees.
The H5N1 avian flu is a highly virulent and dangerous illness that can be transmitted from birds to humans. As of now, there are no documented cases of the virus transmitting from person to person, but it still poses a critical risk to the food supply.
The outbreak of the virus in chickens has caused dire shortages of eggs around the country, resulting in a surge in egg prices even as broader inflation trends have recently stabilized.
Judge Reinstates Federal Worker Appeals Board Chair Fired by Trump
The court found that Cathy Harris "is likely to show her termination as a member of the MSPB was unlawful."
The court found that Cathy Harris "is likely to show her termination as a member of the MSPB was unlawful."
A demonstrator holds a sign during the No Kings Day protest to oppose the Trump administration's policies including efforts to cut the federal workforce, at the Capitol Reflection Pool on February 17, 2025.
(Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Julia Conley
Feb 18, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
In a case that could ultimately proceed to the U.S. Supreme Court as President Donald Trump attempts to take control of independent agencies across the government, a judge on Tuesday reinstated the chair of a board that hears appeals from federal employees after the president fired her last week.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled that Cathy Harris must be reinstated as chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), an independent agency that reviews significant actions of the Office of Personnel Management, where Trump's billionaire backer, tech mogul Elon Musk, has recently seized troves of sensitive data.
Harris was serving a term that is not scheduled to end until March 2028.
The president is only allowed to remove leaders from the MSPB in cases of "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office," and Harris' lawyer argued that Trump, who fired the board chair in a one-sentence email from the Presidential Personnel Office, did not make the case that Harris needed to be fired.
Contreras wrote in his ruling granting Harris a temporary restraining order that the MSPB "falls within the scope of Humphrey's Executor," a 1935 Supreme Court ruling that established the precedent that Congress can require the president to show cause before firing board members at independent agencies.
"Congress has the power to specify that members of the MSPB may serve for a term of years, with the president empowered to remove those members only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office," Contreras wrote.
"The president did not indicate that any of these reasons drove his decision to terminate Harris," he continued. "The court thus concludes that Harris has demonstrated that she is likely to show her termination as a member of the MSPB was unlawful."
A federal judge last week also blocked Trump from firing Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of the Special Counsel (OSC), which protects whistleblowers.
If the cases make their way to the Supreme Court, the court's right-wing majority could rule in favor of expanding presidential powers related to dismissing the heads of watchdog agencies.
Since the MSPB hears appeals from federal workers, Harris' reinstatement is also "particularly noteworthy given the recent mass firings of [federal employees] across government," said Eric Katz of Government Executive.
After granting Harris a temporary restraining order, Contreras ordered Harris to submit a motion for a preliminary injunction within five days and scheduled a hearing on the matter for March 3.
Ousted workers dispute claims DOGE saved Medicare and disease jobs from cuts: report
Sarah K. Burris
February 18, 2025
RAW STORY
The Trump administration's insistence that it's avoiding cutting certain healthcare workers — including those involved with disease response and Medicare — appears to be false, according to a report.
An anonymous official in the administration told Politico last week they were trying to be "thoughtful about critical functions that the government needs to perform."
But not so, laid-off workers told HuffPost.
Even those "keeping dangerous chemicals out of the food supply, and those on a project to reduce America’s notoriously high maternal mortality rate" are now gone, reported Jonathan Cohn.
Two HHS employees who work on Medicare were given dismissal notices. The sources told HuffPost "plenty more" were cut, including those hired to renegotiate drug prices for Medicare.
"But the idea that this effort is 'thoughtful' seems pretty dubious, given the broad, chaotic way firings have taken place ― and the fact that, as employees told HuffPost, many of the people who lost jobs were working on projects to reduce costs, to guard against fraud or to promote better health outcomes," wrote Cohen.
Trump claimed DOGE's goal was to reduce "waste, fraud, and abuse," but one worker told HuffPost that the cuts are not being made efficiently and will not help save taxpayer dollars.
“If you want to talk about saving money for taxpayers, we were the ones that were ensuring that it actually was budget neutral for the federal government,” that worker said.
Trump tasked Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency initiative with finding what should be cut, resulting in an indiscriminate firing of whole offices.
At the Department of Energy, for example, as many as 350 National Nuclear Security Administration employees were laid off last week, leaving offices vacant for some of the most sensitive nuclear positions. The White House team wanted to bring them back once they realized their mistake, but couldn't find any contact information, NBC News said.
While the U.S. faces a bird flu outbreak, the administration fired those at the Department of Agriculture on Friday who were working on it. DOGE fired those tasked with disease detection, The Independent reported Monday. Like with the Department of Energy, the administration is now scrambling to find those workers to ask them to return.
Read the full list here.
Sarah K. Burris
February 18, 2025
RAW STORY
The Trump administration's insistence that it's avoiding cutting certain healthcare workers — including those involved with disease response and Medicare — appears to be false, according to a report.
An anonymous official in the administration told Politico last week they were trying to be "thoughtful about critical functions that the government needs to perform."
But not so, laid-off workers told HuffPost.
Even those "keeping dangerous chemicals out of the food supply, and those on a project to reduce America’s notoriously high maternal mortality rate" are now gone, reported Jonathan Cohn.
Two HHS employees who work on Medicare were given dismissal notices. The sources told HuffPost "plenty more" were cut, including those hired to renegotiate drug prices for Medicare.
"But the idea that this effort is 'thoughtful' seems pretty dubious, given the broad, chaotic way firings have taken place ― and the fact that, as employees told HuffPost, many of the people who lost jobs were working on projects to reduce costs, to guard against fraud or to promote better health outcomes," wrote Cohen.
Trump claimed DOGE's goal was to reduce "waste, fraud, and abuse," but one worker told HuffPost that the cuts are not being made efficiently and will not help save taxpayer dollars.
“If you want to talk about saving money for taxpayers, we were the ones that were ensuring that it actually was budget neutral for the federal government,” that worker said.
Trump tasked Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency initiative with finding what should be cut, resulting in an indiscriminate firing of whole offices.
At the Department of Energy, for example, as many as 350 National Nuclear Security Administration employees were laid off last week, leaving offices vacant for some of the most sensitive nuclear positions. The White House team wanted to bring them back once they realized their mistake, but couldn't find any contact information, NBC News said.
While the U.S. faces a bird flu outbreak, the administration fired those at the Department of Agriculture on Friday who were working on it. DOGE fired those tasked with disease detection, The Independent reported Monday. Like with the Department of Energy, the administration is now scrambling to find those workers to ask them to return.
Read the full list here.
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