The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has begun drafting a statement of work seeking federal contractors to perform the duties of some recently laid-off employees who worked on coordinating travel plans and logistics for FDA inspectors. The decision comes about one week after the agency announced its reduction in force (RIF), which included the elimination of all employees working on this specific task.
The RIF, part of a broader workforce cut across the Department of Health and Human Services, affected approximately 10,000 agency employees on April 1. Some of these employees were not given clear instructions on how to transfer their duties or who would take over their work. Instead, they were asked to continue working temporarily to support inspectors currently abroad.
However, after a few hours, the employees ended their temporary support and moved into an administrative leave status. It was later revealed that the FDA plans to hire contractors to perform the same tasks, including domestic and international travel coordination, transportation management, and federal travel regulation knowledge.
The drafted statement outlines the need for immediate contractor hiring, with hired workers provided with laptops, badges, and other federal equipment to complete the work. The document also notes that some travel coordination can be done remotely.
This move has raised concerns among former employees, who feel that their expertise will be lost as contractors take over their roles. They argue that while a contractor may have knowledge of federal travel regulations, they would not fully understand the complexities of the job, leading to a potential learning curve.
The FDA’s travel operations division previously employed about 60 staff members before the RIF and involved tasks such as planning and coordinating domestic and overseas travel for inspectors, managing transportation and logistics, and ensuring compliance with federal travel regulations.
Source: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2025/04/fda-seeks-contractors-to-replace-dozens-of-feds-laid-off-two-weeks-ago