US Health and Human Services employee travel frozen

Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, employees of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, were informed of an immediate and indefinite suspension of all of their travel. Staff were informed this week of the freeze, which includes both future engagements, as well as for employees who had accepted speaking engagements before Trump’s inauguration. Any previously approved travel must now be canceled. “Travel is only authorized for the return of those individuals who have already departed on official travel. However, this exception is only for the traveler to the original point of departure,” Vincent Fusaro, senior travel official at HHS, wrote to staff on Tuesday in a memo obtained by Devex. HHS has a proposed budget this year of around $1.8 trillion and more than 80,000 employees across the U.S. and globally. While a lot of HHS’s work is domestic, several of its agencies are involved in global health work, such as funding health research, supporting disease surveillance and emergency response abroad, and helping to shape international frameworks. A key area of the global affairs office at HHS has included working with the World Health Organization. On Monday, Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the U.S. from WHO. An employee of HHS told Devex, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, that a travel freeze is out of the norm, disrupts their ability to do their jobs, and prevents meaningful interactions and capacity building within the HHS’ agencies and its partners. “This is definitely not making America or Americans safer and it’s definitely not improving fiscal responsibility because all of these travel plans will likely be postponed to later dates incurring more fees and delaying progress on projects,” they said. But there have also been some limitations on travel for HHS in previous administrations, including a Bush administration policy for the National Institutes of Health limiting travel to scientific meetings to save money, which the succeeding Obama administration continued. This travel freeze comes amid executive orders issued this week on a federal hiring freeze and return to the office for remote workers. HHS employees were also told to pause communicating with the public, which includes issuing health guidance, press releases, and communicating using Listservs, among other modes of communication, until they can be approved by a presidential appointee. Staff were also told that offices focused on diversity, equity, inclusivity, and accessibility would be closed, in line with an executive order Trump issued on Monday that applies across the federal government. HHS employees were told by Scott Rowell, deputy chief of staff of operations at HHS, Wednesday that “these programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.” “We are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language,” he wrote in a memo obtained by Devex. He then asked employees to report any changes in contract descriptions or personnel positions in recent months that “obscure the connection between the contract and DEIA.” Failure to report within 10 days may result in consequences, he wrote. HHS had not responded to Devex’s request for comment at time of publication.