On April Fool’s Day, the joke was on federal workers. Head Start Services along with Children and Families offices have been dismantled.
The email was sent at 5:24 in the morning. A Reduction In Force (RIF) letter obtained by Ark Republic stated that employees who received the correspondence from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had 60 days to find a new job. Effective immediately, they were placed on administrative leave. In Region 2, the impact was felt throughout the agency.
When workers got to the office in New York City, their badges failed to open the electronic entrance at the federal building. Locked out, 120 employees discovered they were fired. The only department left untouched was the Office of Refugee Resettlement, showing the Trump Administration’s focus on immigration.
“We were completely decimated,” a Region 2 staffer told Ark Republic. The area covers New York, New Jersey, US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and several major Native American tribes.
“There’s no one to run most of the programs as supervisors and middle-management have been removed. This is going to impact not only Black folks, but poor white people in the area. Then there’s tribal communities that are really in need,” they furthered.
The mass firings are part of the Trump Administration’s plan, via Elon Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), to curb spending by decreasing the workforce and shuttering offices. Last week, HHS announced that it would minimize regional offices from 10 to five and cut 10,000 staffers. These massive layoffs and firings came on April Fool’s Day, marking a signature move by the Trump Administration to axe people on holidays, like the discharges on Valentine’s Day.
Reportedly, another sector impacted is the Mid-Atlantic Office in the nation’s capital that makes up Region 3 (Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.). There, employees stood in line at the entrance and found out on the spot if they still had a job.
Reports from inside HHS say that the Region 5 Office in Chicago–which covers Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin–was notified that it would close down. Other offices that are folding are Boston, Seattle and San Francisco. For some, it seems as if the current president is targeting Democratic-heavy areas. “We thought the cuts would be based on need and size of services, but it looks like they are punishing blue states,” said the HHS insider. Moreover, they emphasized that some “communities are going to feel [the impact of the firings] instantaneously.”
One of the marquee programs running out of HHS was Head Start, an earmarked program focused on offering subsidies for childcare so parents can go to work. In Region 2 alone, it serviced over 100,000 preschool children and families. Head Start, along with Children and Families, are pretty much gone. Both programs make sure states comply with improving the quality of child care, daycare centers and infant care. They also monitor providers. In Region 2, like all offices, there was COVID-19 relief money still being disbursed. When asked where that aid will go, our sources did not know.
Included in the shedding are contractors who serviced HHS offices, which affects the private sector. The Trump Administration has yet to announce their full plans on what HHS will look like in its reconfigured infrastructure. What is certain, many will be negatively impacted.
Computer access will be shut down shortly for those terminated. For many that means, years of work being public servants that directly benefited the communities from which they came. “A lot of the people who work in these programs are minorities, and a lot of people who receive these services are impoverished people,” lamented an HHS staffer to Ark Republic.
