US President Donald Trump’s administration is in the process of rehiring officials from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) who were involved in the government’s response to the bird flu outbreak before being dismissed over the weekend, according to US media reports.
The dismissals were part of a broader cost-cutting initiative led by Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) leader, Elon Musk. These terminations coincided with a recent surge in bird flu cases that have severely impacted poultry and cattle farms, leading to a spike in egg prices and raising concerns among public health experts.
A spokesperson for the USDA informed the BBC that while «several» officials working on bird flu were notified of their terminations over the weekend, efforts are being made to swiftly address the situation and retract those dismissal letters.
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service considers frontline positions as essential for public safety and is actively recruiting the necessary workforce to ensure the safety and sufficient food supply to fulfill their statutory mission.
Bird flu has been circulating among American poultry flocks for many years, but the virus gained a stronger hold in the US last year when it started infecting dairy cows. Subsequently, numerous individuals who had close contact with the animals contracted the virus, including a patient in Louisiana who became the first fatality from the virus in the US last month.
The outbreak has further intensified on poultry farms, leading farmers to cull their chickens, resulting in egg shortages and increased prices. To address the shortage, the US recently agreed to purchase 15,000 tonnes of liquid egg from Turkey, with the products expected to be delivered in two batches by the end of June, as confirmed by Ibrahim Afyon, the president of the Egg Producers Central Union in Turkey.
President Trump initiated a large-scale cost-cutting program to eliminate what he perceives as wasteful use of taxpayers’ money. Opinion polls indicate widespread support for reducing government spending.
The recent firings at the USDA are not the first instance where the administration has tried to rehire federal employees shortly after laying them off. Following the dismissal of officials from the National Nuclear Security Administration last week, reports emerged that the government was attempting to reinstate some of those employees, albeit facing challenges in reaching them.
In addition to these layoffs, an estimated 75,000 workers have accepted buyout offers from the White House to depart voluntarily. Several Democratic states have filed lawsuits to block some of these mass government layoffs and restrict Doge’s access to sensitive data.
In a victory for Trump and Musk, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected one of these requests on Tuesday, stating that Democratic states had failed to establish a direct link between Trump’s layoffs and imminent harm in their respective states.
Trump and Musk made an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday night to defend the extensive budget cuts being implemented across the government. Musk asserted that Doge’s objective is to «restore the will of the people through the president,» highlighting concerns about an unelected bureaucracy.
Additional reporting by Zeynep Erdim.
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