US Vice-President JD Vance has warned of further workforce cuts in addition to the thousands of jobs already axed if the government shutdown is not resolved.
“The longer this goes on, the deeper the cuts are going to be,” Vance told Fox News.
Hundreds of thousands of federal employees are already on leave without pay as the shutdown approaches its third week.
They want the budget to include an extension of federal subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
Those CDC employees “have all been notified that they are not subject to the reduction in force”, Andrew Nixon said.
In the event that the government shutdown is not ended, US Vice-President JD Vance has threatened to eliminate thousands of jobs and more.
“The cuts are going to be deeper the longer this goes on,” Vance told Fox News. “I want to be clear that some of these cuts will hurt. “,”.
Democrats claimed that by excluding health insurance subsidies from the spending bill, Republicans were punishing people.
As the third week of the shutdown draws near, hundreds of thousands of federal workers are already on unpaid leave. A congressional vote to reopen the government is not planned.
On October 1, a short-term funding bill was rejected by Democrats, sparking the start of the standoff. They are calling for an extension of the Affordable Care Act’s federal health insurance subsidies in the budget.
The CDC was one of seven agencies that the Trump administration said on Friday had begun terminating more than 4,000 employees.
A representative for the US health department, which is in charge of the CDC, told the BBC that some of those layoff notices were sent inadvertently.
According to Andrew Nixon, those CDC staff members “have all been notified that they are not subject to the reduction in force”.
The employees’ union told CNN that about 700 of the 1,300 CDC employees who were let go on Friday were reinstated on Saturday.
Federal law enforcement officers, air traffic controllers, and other essential workers must continue to work unpaid.
However, the Trump administration is making an exception for US service members, who are considered essential workers.
In response to Trump’s directive, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth found the money needed to pay the troops this week.
A Pentagon official told the BBC that if the funding lapse is not fixed, the Department of Defense will use roughly $8 billion (£6 billion) from “unobligated research development testing and evaluation funds” to pay military personnel on October 15.
In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Arizona Democrat Senator Mark Kelly defended the Democratic stance, stating that he will not compromise his party’s demand that federal healthcare subsidies be reinstated in the budget immediately.
Kelly added that Republicans “don’t have to do this, they don’t have to punish people” in reference to the layoffs.
On NBC’s Meet the Press, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, stated that he would not vote to continue the subsidies.
Speaking to Fox, Vance laid the blame on the Democrats, saying: “The Democrats have dealt us a pretty difficult set of cards, but this is not a situation we relish, [these layoffs] are not something we’re looking forward to. “.
More government services are being impacted by the shutdown as lawmakers continue to argue over the budget.
After funding to keep them open ran out, a number of Smithsonian museums, research facilities, and the National Zoo in Washington, DC, closed on Sunday.
