The Food and Drug Administration is putting together plans to hire contractors to replace the duties of some federal employees terminated two weeks ago.
FDA’s reduction in force (RIF) in early April included the elimination of all employees who worked on coordinating travel plans and logistics for FDA inspectors. About one week after FDA announced its RIF on April 1, the agency began drafting a statement of work seeking contractors for travel coordination work in support of FDA’s Office of Inspections and Investigations (OII).
“Recent adjustments in staff numbers have created a heightened need for the FDA to be nimble, efficient and respond creatively, in order to continue and maintain FDA’s regulatory inspection presence and the gold standard of excellence,” the FDA document, obtained by Federal News Network, states.
In the drafted statement, FDA described a search for federal contractors who are experienced in coordinating domestic and international travel, managing transportation and travel logistics, and who have a working knowledge of federal travel regulations.
FDA’s travel operations division, which employed about 60 staff members prior to the RIF, previously worked on exactly those responsibilities. The jobs involved planning and coordinating both domestic and overseas travel for FDA inspectors. Some of the travel operations employees had been working for FDA somewhere between 10 and 20 years.
FDA wrote that the need for contractors is “immediate,” and that hired contractors would be given laptops, badges and other federal equipment to be able do the work. The document also states that some of the travel coordination work can be done remotely. The news of FDA hiring contractors to replace the work of some federal employees was first reported by CBS News.
On April 1, FDA informed employees who were being laid off in a RIF that their positions were being terminated because they were “identified as either unnecessary or virtually identical to duties being performed elsewhere in the agency,” according to the agency’s RIF notice, obtained by Federal News Network.
The travel services division, along with HR and budget specialist positions in the OII’s Office of Management, were eliminated as part of the RIF. The employees were placed on administrative leave, effective immediately, and will be fully offboarded by June 2.
“Everybody was caught off-guard,” one employee, speaking anonymously for fear of professional retribution, said of the RIF notice. “We were worried about the inspectors who were out on travel. What happens to them if there’s nobody at home to support them?”
“It’s been a hostile work environment,” said another employee, also speaking anonymously. “You just feel demoralized.”
The RIF at FDA was part of the broader workforce cuts across the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this month. In total, HHS terminated approximately 10,000 agency employees in non-voluntary layoffs on April 1.
Employees in the FDA’s travel services division said when they received the RIF notice, they were not given any instructions on how to transfer their duties or who the work would be transferred to.
A few hours after receiving notice of the RIF, the employees were then asked to continue working temporarily to support FDA inspectors who were currently on travel abroad. The staff agreed to continue working for about one week, according to two employees who described the situation to Federal News Network.
“None of us really felt right about leaving the travelers high and dry,” one of the employees said. “But it wasn’t really back to ‘business as usual’ — we were stressed out, confused and hurt about everything that was happening.”
On April 8, the employees ended their interim support of travel coordination and moved to an administrative leave status. Two days later, on April 10, the employees began hearing that FDA was putting together plans to hire contractors to do the same work.
“That really confused us — it goes against what we were told in our RIF letters, which basically said that our jobs either weren’t needed, or someone else in the agency was doing them,” one terminated employee said. “We were being told we’re not needed, but then the agency is turning around and hiring contractors to replace us.”
It’s unclear if any other offices or divisions within FDA are taking the same approach to continue the duties of recently laid off staff members. FDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Generally, the work in FDA’s travel services division involves coordinating payments, reviewing and certifying travel vouchers, processing travel authorizations, booking flights and hotels, and completing accounting and budgeting work — all while ensuring the entire process meets federal travel regulations. The international travel division involves additional work obtaining passports, visas and reviewing other travel requirements.
One employee who was terminated from their job said at times, the work also involved picking up the phone in the middle of the night to support an FDA inspector who might be having trouble with their travel card, or facing any other number of issues while working overseas.
“We’re just that friendly voice on the line — if something does go wrong, and they’re stuck in another country and they don’t speak the language, they can call us and we’re here to help them,” the employee said. “We support the inspectors with the travel they need to do, so they can do their jobs.”
The terminated employees also expressed concerns that FDA will feel a deep and immediate loss of expertise across the travel services division.
“Sure, a contractor could come in and read all the federal travel regulations. But there are a lot of moving pieces that can be hard for someone to pick up. There is going to be a learning curve,” one employee said. “And in the meantime, travel does not stop. Our inspectors can’t just stop doing inspections and wait for contractors to learn the job. They need to keep going.”
If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email drew.friedman@federalnewsnetwork.com or reach out on Signal at drewfriedman.11
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