“I tried to ask like, ‘can you tell me why I wasn’t eligible for VSIP?’ she said of the Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment. The response:Ěý “Crickets.”

DeLancey is just one of the 3,500 FDA employees on a rollercoaster ride since April 1, when the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, initiated mass layoffs.

Former federal employees have been plunged headfirst into a sea of unemployment and early retirement, some re-entering the DMV workforce for the first time in years.

As pile up, many employees remain in limbo on their job status. A few have been rehired, but not enough to replace the thousands who have left. Currently, former employees who have not retired early have been placed on administrative leave. Those leaves are set to expire on June 2.Ěý

Former employees described the aftermath of mass layoffs as chaotic, with communication about their next steps being especially strained.Ěý

DeLancey, for example, said she emailed the incentive payment program team seven times, and after weeks of cold emailing, she was officially denied the week of May 4.Ěý

VSIP is a $25,000 payment available to all laid-off employees who meet its criteria, but it is offered as a stack-on to early retirement candidates.Ěý

Applications for early retirement and VSIP were due shortly after the two exit strategies were announced.

That means DeLancey had 11 days to decide if she wanted to retire early from her 21-year career. Otherwise, she would’ve been laid off.Ěý Ultimately, she digitally signed her early retirement slip, and her retirement date was set for April 19.Ěý

For the FDA, DeLancey, of Union Bridge, Maryland, served as the senior advisor for strategic communications in the Center for Veterinary Medicine for the last seven years of her career at the Rockville, Maryland, campus. There, she led a team of health communication specialists who reported on vital health updates to the public.

“ A lot of people think that we’re just like puppies and kittens and happy, feel good stories,” DeLancey said.Ěý“There is a lot more to that that people don’t think about because we regulate what goes into the animals that become your food, and I felt like that perspective was often lost.”Ěý

The work left behind

Before layoffs swept the work off DeLancey’s desk, her team had still been closely monitoring the bird flu —a health threat that she said could potentially be worse than COVID if left unmonitored.

“ We have the potential of another epidemic, another worldwide epidemic at our doorstep, and you’re gonna fire the people who are working on it directly? That is the one that just really kills me,” DeLancey said.

DeLancey outlined more risks attached to FDA firings in her opinion piece to Food Safety News on April 22. She said she’d been thinking about writing this article “a long time before it ran.”

“ I really wanted to write it after the first when my team got laid off but I was afraid that the administration would take revenge. I’ve never felt that way in any other position that I’ve been in,” DeLancey said.

Currently, she is waiting to see if she’ll receive her work performance award for top performers in 2024, which could be a small cash award of around $500 to $800.

“Those awards are usually made around this time [of year] and no one knows if we will actually get them,” she said in a text message.

DMV economy strained; institutional knowledge wiped

While the economic impact of federal layoffs continues to unfold, some experts believe that layoffs, combined with current unemployment, are a double-edged sword. In other words: loss of fundamental work, loss of knowledge.

The public is generally aware of the layoffs. But to others, the situation is more personal. Celeste Davis thinks about its impact on her community.Ěý

“I’m worried about the red dye and food, but I’m also worried about if my neighbors can actually afford food, too,” Davis said in a Zoom interview.Ěý

Davis is an American University health studies professor. Though her work does not directly overlap with the FDA, she thinks about her friends and colleagues who have lost their jobs, and what it means for the future of public health training.Ěý

In terms of how the public can trust the health information being released post-layoffs, Davis said she doesn’t know.

“If we’re changing research data to not have certain words because of political ideologies, that doesn’t sound good. And if that’s going to be the sentiment across all these types of actions, that’s not good,” Davis said.

‘Bread and butter’ let go.

Losing institutional expertise is costly enough, but it also sets off a ripple effect that hits the entire support team.

Under normal circumstances, Sydney Verdine’s department would’ve helped DeLancey with things like early retirement. Verdine’s support to staff went beyond that, and she helped between 300 and 500 departments, she said.

“There’s people who are pending early retirement and they don’t know what date [they end], they don’t know when to take their stuff. You know, they’re just sitting there,” Verdine said in a phone interview.

Verdine, 35, is a Maryland resident who worked as a management analyst in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the White Oak, Maryland, campus. She said her entire team were let go, even her superiors.

She described her department as the backbone of the work that is done at the FDA.

“We were the operating staff, the bread and butter, you know, just to help everything run smoothly, and I have been told that without us being there … it’s chaotic without us there,”

Verdine was asked to help with timekeeping and credit entry while she’s on administrative leave, but said there wasn’t much help she could offer since she didn’t have access to everyone’s timesheets.Ěý

“Every ecosystem needs every single part to thrive. And when you pull something from the ecosystem, it messes with it. It’s no longer the same,” Verdine said.

A chainsaw vs. a scalpelĚý

ĚýAn FDA instructional systems specialist requested that their name not be used after seeing an article about investigations targeting laid-off workers who had spokenĚýto the press.

The former FDA employee trained physicians to be clinical reviewers, creating master classes, e-learning materials and instructional recordings to ensure physicians are up to speed. They described their role as “no other training in the world.”

Clinical reviewers at the FDA oversee the testing of new medications during clinical trials, where they assess side effects and determine whether the medication is safe for release to the public. Clinical reviewers have a year to review all data to make a final determination.Ěý

The former FDA employee worked remotely from the Midwest, where their work was shared across all FDA campuses.Ěý

With a gut to almost all of the former FDA employee’s team, only the physicians, who are also training clinical reviewers, remain standing. The former employee stated that it’s not safe for them to perform their job alone.

“ To me, I feel like it’s just dangerous to not have people who are fully trained to do their job, and there’s nothing available and there’s not going to be anything available for who knows how long,” they said.

“​​ I knew that the Republican agenda was to cut the workforce. What I didn’t realize is how they were going to do it. I didn’t realize they were gonna take a chainsaw versus a scalpel,” the former FDA employee said.

Termination letter errors

The former employee said they were one of many other former federal workers that reported mistakes in their termination letter.

91ÇŃ×Ó issued to highlight the sections the former FDA employee identified as incorrect. These edits do not reflect all potential errors, as the former employee is still consulting with their superiors to better understand the letter’s contents. Certain areas of the letter have been blacked out to protect the individuals’ identities.

On April 29, the Health and Human Services (HHS) Public Affairs office received a request to comment on why employees had errors on their RIF letters and whether official corrections would be issued.Ěý

This was the explanation for why errors occurred.

“All of the data in the RIF notices was populated from HHS’s human resources system of record. To the extent there are errors, it is because the data collected by HHS’s multiple, siloed HR divisions is inaccurate. This is exactly why HHS is reorganizing its administrative functions to streamline operations and fix the broken systems left to us by the Biden Administration. Streamlining this into one operation will allow for enhanced data integrity and coordination,” said an HHS spokesperson.

When asked if the errors would be corrected, the spokesperson did not respond.

Living in Limbo as Gen Z

The FDA was Menna Ibrahim’s first big career move as a 25-year-old graduate student, and her work has already crumbled before her.

This month, Ibrahim is set to graduate from the Merrill College of Journalism MA program. She also worked full-time as an FDA recruitment and outreach management analyst since July 2022.

Ěý“ It’s already hard to navigate your first job as is. And it seems to be significantly more difficult when the government and the people that are supposed to protect you, quote unquote, are making it significantly harder to navigate,” Ibrahim said.

After being unable to return to the FDA communications department since the April 1 layoff, Ibrahim still has yet to receive a RIF letter.ĚýĚý

Ibrahim resides in the Trinidad neighborhood of Northeast D.C., about an hour’s commute from her Rockville FDA campus.Ěý

She had the day off on April 1, but woke up to the news of her colleagues and supervisor being terminated. Her supervisor told her to log in to her work email to see if she had received the RIF sent out at 6:05 that morning.

Ibrahim logged in at 8 a.m. – nothing. She texted her colleagues to see what was going on.

“ They had all received theirs. And so I was really confused. I was like, ‘Do I still have a job? Do I not? What’s the vibe?” Ibrahim said in a phone interview.

Her supervisor said that the letter may arrive in her inbox around noon, and to keep an eye on her laptop.

By mid-May, the message had still not arrived.

Click on the image above to begin slideshow

A part of Ibrahim hoped she survived the swinging axe of unemployment. The next day, she drove the hour-long commute to the Rockville office. She swiped into the garage, and her card worked. But she still had to swipe into the building. Her building swipe didn’t work, and at that moment, she’d realized her job was gone.

Ibrahim had a feeling she wouldn’t survive staffing cuts anyway being the youngest on her team.

Ěý“I knew if they were going to keep one person on my team, the likelihood that it would be me is super low because I have way less experience than the people that I worked with,” she said.

Ibrahim’s work as a recruitment and outreach management analyst supported student interns and post-graduates. She also managed the FDA’s LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) page and wrote for the agency’s bimonthly newsletter.

She planned to stay at the FDA until she found her dream job to be in a newsroom after graduation, but the security net fell beneath her.

“Because I’ve been let go, things feel a lot more urgent and I feel like I’m a lot more desperate to take on any role that will pay me,” Ibrahim said.

Being a journalist and a former FDA employee hasn’t been easy for Ibrahim, but she said being a reporter makes her “have so much more empathy for federal workers.”

Frustrations continue after layoffs

Corrilisha Telford couldn’t attend Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s on April 11 because she was let go, but said her colleagues who could attend told her they were “very upset” by his remarks.

In Kennedy’s speech at the White Oak campus, he referred to the FDA as a “sock puppet for the industry it was supposed to regulate,” which were one of the many statements that did not sit well with the crowd.

There are “people [who] are still working there, and you’re telling them that their work doesn’t matter basically,” Telford said.

Kennedy has that his plans to slash health agency staff will lead to significant cost savings, and projected the layoffs to save taxpayers $1.8 billion annually.

Telford said that cuts to her department would not save taxpayers any money, as it’s funded by user fees – charges paid by individuals or businesses to government agencies for access to services and resources.Ěý

Telford, 28, of Silver Spring, Maryland, worked for the FDA for three and a half years, and in the last nine months of her role, she worked in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). Her office handled regulatory policy.Ěý

For her colleagues who remain, she is worried about how they will be able to function with a minimized staff.

“I’m concerned for my colleagues, because it’s not working.”

Telford said she’s unsure how she fits into the world now. Within her first two weeks of unemployment, Telford applied for 20 to 30 positions, but the required skill sets don’t fully mirror her FDA expertise.

Like Verdine, Telford was also asked if she could return to work after the layoff to help with the transition of work.

Telford did not take up the offer.Ěý

“ Why would I do that? Y’all laid me off. Why would I help you?” she said. “And that goes to show you, they just don’t have enough people.”

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“I feel like it just changed overnight,” said Danny Gibson, a native Washingtonian and Ward 5 resident.

Ward 5 is the second-fastest growing ward in the District, according to . Its population grew 20.3% over the last 10 years. Much of that growth can be attributed to the increase in housing developments across the ward.

Ward 5’s new residents tend to be white: the area went from an 81% Black population in 2010 to 55% in 2020, .

“I’m okay with diversity, that’s great. What I’m not okay with is the displacement of native Washingtonians,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher was born in Jamaica, raised in New York and has lived in D.C. for the last 20 years. He said these facts make him uniquely qualified to help unify an increasingly diverse ward.

Gibson said she was especially concerned about elderly Ward 5 residents being pushed out of their homes.

“They’re being pushed out, people who have lived here for 30 years,” Gibson said.

One of Fletcher’s goals as councilmember would be to expand affordable housing, especially three- and four-bedroom apartments.

“The last time there was a rent control home was in 1975. We need newer buildings that can fall under rent control,” Fletcher said.

Ward 5 also has the greatest proportion of senior residents, according to the .

Fletcher has experience addressing housing for seniors. As an ANC commissioner, Fletcher helped relocate more than 100 seniors into new housing. However, the new apartments were not large enough to accommodate seniors who wanted to live with their families and initially required residents to pay for parking.

“Seniors are a linchpin of the campaign,” said Juan Ulloa, Fletcher’s campaign manager.

Ulloa said Fletcher’s work for seniors and other constituents are part of what drew him to join Fletcher’s campaign.

“When Ward 5 was under a boil water advisory, he was out there handing out cases of water. When seniors have issues about where they’re going to live, he’s out there making sure they’re getting taken care of,” Ulloa said.

Other attendees said education was top of mind.

“I just want to make sure that we have a council member that truly supports the values and the beliefs of the school system,” said William Blake, assistant director of Redesign for D.C. Public Schools. “As of right now, he definitely is. He’s who I put my money behind.”

Throughout the event, Fletcher highlighted diversity and unity.

“That means making sure that residents that just moved here six months ago, and residents who have been here for 60 years, both feel comfortable in Ward 5,” Fletcher said.

Part of Fletcher’s efforts to unify the ward include establishing a festival like H Street Festival, which he said would bring together members of the community who would not otherwise interact.

“Can you imagine a festival for Ward 5, all the different folks who would come out for that? Newer residents, older residents,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher is the youngest candidate in the race so far (the deadline to file to run for office is Dec. 10), in contrast with two other candidates, Harry Thomas Jr. and Vincent Orange, who have each served several terms on council before. Both resigned amid ethics scandals.

One supporter said she would not consider voting for Thomas or Orange.

“It’s time to pass on the baton.”

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Incumbent Kenyan McDuffie has decided to run for Attorney General rather than seek re-election, opening up a competitive race to fill his seat. McDuffie has sat on the council since 2012.

The candidates include Faith Gibson Hubbard, most recently the director of the Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs; Gordon Fletcher, ANC representative for single member district 5A08; Zachary Parker, president of the D.C. State Board of Education; and Vincent Orange and Harry Thomas Jr., both former Ward 5 councilmembers.

ANC 5E chairman Bradley Thomas has a suggesting he may run for Ward 5 councilmember, but it is unclear whether he will join the race.

Faith Gibson Hubbard

A former middle school teacher, Hubbard said she was inspired to join government service because of the frustrations she and her students felt in the classroom.

Policy showed up “in ways that I knew were not beneficial to my students,” Hubbard said. “People who actually knew what was happening on the ground needed to be a part of government service.”

Hubbard views her work as a teacher, executive director of Thrive by Five—a program that connects D.C. families to resources—and Chief Student Advocate for D.C. all as fulfilling the same role. She said teaching in a public school was a kind of public service for her.

“When you are in those types of roles, you are representative of the community,” Hubbard said.

Hubbard said she wanted to involve Ward 5 residents in the policymaking process.

“There are a lot of really great ideas that are pushed forward, but oftentimes there’s no room for public times,” Hubbard said during the . She proposed requiring community input while legislating.

Hubbard has also highlighted her position as the only woman and the only parent to young children in the race.

“I see that as both a small barrier, but a great opportunity for me to be able to connect with my neighbors and their reality,” Hubbard said.

Public safety and transportation are top concerns for Hubbard and residents of Trinidad, which lies in the southern part of Ward 5.

“Bus lines aren’t equitable throughout the ward, there’s not train access everywhere,” Hubbard said.

Hubbard said she plans to improve public safety through education, which would provide economic opportunity and help address the root causes of crime.

For Hubbard, all of the issues that Ward 5 and the city as a whole faces can be addressed through greater government responsiveness.

“So what could I do if elected in order to address those things? No 1. is to be present.”

Gordon Fletcher

An adjunct instructor in the Department of Justice, Law & Criminology at American University, Fletcher said his experience as a student and a teacher have contributed to his decision to run.

“Service is in my heart. I’ve been big on it since I first came to D.C. at 17 to attend American University,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher was born in Jamaica, grew up in New York and has lived in D.C. for the last 20 years.

“The most diverse ward in our great city needs a leader that represents diversity, and I represent diversity,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher said his experience as an ANC commissioner for 5A helped him “get the pulse of the community,” giving him knowledge of the issues that affect Ward 5.

“I’ve been reelected three times to that position, every time garnering more votes, which shows that the trust of the public… continues to increase,” Fletcher said.

As a commissioner, Fletcher helped relocate more than 100 seniors into new housing. However, the new apartments were not large enough to accommodate seniors who wanted to live with their families and initially required residents to pay for parking. These issues, Fletcher said, made him passionate about housing reform.

To address increasing crime rates, Fletcher supports community policing. He brought back the Orange Hat Patrol, a kind of community policing, to his neighborhood, which he said helped reduce crime and which he wants to implement across the ward.

“I want to name it the Ward 5 Public Safety Squad,” Fletcher said. Fletcher said he also supported reallocating resources to social service and mental health programs.

Fletcher said he hopes to help both long term and newer Ward 5 residents. “I want to do this together.”

Zachary Parker

Parker, a former seventh grade math teacher, was elected to represent Ward 5 on the State Board of Education in 2018. His colleagues elected him president of the State Board of Education in January.

“My work has given me a front row seat to many of the challenges our families and parents face and the challenges our young people face,” Parker said.

Parker continues to work in schools in addition to being president of the State Board of Education. The ward representative to the State Board of Education is the only ward-wide representative outside of councilmember. Parker said that being representative and president have uniquely qualified him for the council seat.

“I see just how fragile people’s lives are,” Parker said.

Like Hubbard and Fletcher, Parker said he thinks the most pressing issues Ward 5 faces have to do with rising crime, public safety and housing affordability. Trinidad is seeing “rapid gentrification.”

Gentrification “makes it hard for people who want a fixed income to afford to stay in the communities in which they’ve lived forever,” Parker said.

During the Ward 5 Council Candidates Forum, Parker said he supported greater funding for mental health and other social programs, as well as education. “What we’re seeing in this city is the result of the years of defunding our communities,” Parker said.

Parker’s plan to address transportation and safety issues came after a 5-year-old girl was killed while crossing the street in a traffic crash in Brookland in September. Parker said the plan, called “Safe Streets,” was drafted with neighbors. The plan calls for creating safer intersections around schools, removing Metropolitan Police from traffic enforcement to end biased stops and increased bus routes, among other things.

Parker described his vision for Ward 5 as emphasizing residents’ wellbeing.

“What I’ve demonstrated in the past and what I lay out in my campaign is an opportunity for us to come together to help neighbors meet their basic needs.”

Harry Thomas Jr.

Harry Thomas Jr. was not available for an interview.

Thomas resigned from his position as Ward 5 councilmember and went to prison in 2012 for stealing more than $350,000 in taxpayers’ money earmarked for children’s programs, . He first won the office in 2007.

During the Ward 5 Candidates Forum, Thomas described himself as a “shining example of restorative justice.” He did not have to answer any questions about his past as all candidates received the same questions.

“I’m running because my platform is ‘Harry puts people first,’” Thomas said.

Thomas underscored the importance of economic opportunity throughout the forum.

“We must connect people to opportunities in this city,” Thomas said, referring to many native Washingtonians who have moved to the suburbs amid rising housing costs.

Like other candidates, Thomas said he supported allocating additional funds to programs that would address the root causes of crime.

“Public safety is an important issue. I don’t care who you are, the first call you’re going to make is to 911,” Thomas said.

“We have to help our people return to being productive citizens and away from crime.”

Vincent Orange

Vincent Orange was not available for an interview.

Orange, who served as Ward 5 Councilmember from 1999-2007, has run for office almost a dozen times since 1990. He resigned from his position as at-large councilmember in 2016 after receiving criticism from the public and fellow legislators for accepting the presidency of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce while simultaneously sitting on the council. The concluded that Orange did not break ethics rules when he accepted the job.

“I’m elated for this opportunity to serve and provide, and restore pride in Ward 5,” Orange said in the candidates forum.

Orange was the only candidate to say he would not support a that would provide residents $100 on a SmarTrip card every month. He said he thought the money should go to childcare instead.

Orange focused on his accomplishments during his two previous terms on council, during which he said he furthered economic development, expanded affordable housing and modernized schools.

He also emphasized what he had done to help workers, including helping to establish a $15 minimum wage and prohibiting discrimination against pregnant women and LGBTQ people in the workforce.

Orange most recently ran for an at-large council seat in 2020. He did not win, but leads in a September poll for this election.

Trinidad residents

Trinidad resident Lindsay Whalen shared candidates’ concerns about gentrification and safety in Ward 5.

“It’s alarming to see super expensive brand new housing complexes go up right next to existing businesses and homes with families that have clearly been in this neighborhood a long time,” Whalen said.

Ward 5 was the second-fastest growing ward in D.C. over the last 10 years, . Housing developments have contributed to this rapid population growth.

Whalen also expressed concerns about “instability” in Trinidad. Neighbors on the website Nextdoor post frequently about car break-ins, stolen packages, assaults and other crime.

“I’m not informed enough to know what exactly is at issue here, but to me it speaks to a lack of resources for residents,” Whalen said.

The Democratic primary is on June 21, 2022. The general election will be held Nov. 8, 2022.

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