Federal_vets_confused

Illustration by Sol Volute

A computer glitch felt ominous to a federal veterinarian last week. "I was having trouble logging on to work," she recalled. She clenched up, asking herself, "Is this it?" The "it" was being fired without notice from a job she loves. 

What turned out to be an innocent log-in snag was soon fixed, and she remains employed at the United States Department of Agriculture, but her anxiety lingers.

She and millions of coworkers in the U.S. government have been navigating a barrage of confusing and sometimes contradictory announcements about their employment status, stemming from executive orders and actions aimed at slashing the size of government. More than two million federal workers have been pressured to resign, and thousands had their positions terminated in the first month of President Donald Trump's second administration, according to numerous press reports.

Veterinarians comprise a small but important slice of the U.S. government workforce. The National Association of Federal Veterinarians (NAFV) estimates that between 2,900 and 3,200 are part of the federal workforce, excluding the more than 1,000 in the military.

Many of the government departments employing veterinarians were already stretched thin before the push for resignations or layoffs, said Dr. Joseph Annelli, NAFV executive vice president.

"There is a veterinary shortage within federal service pretty much across the board," he added. "We need more veterinarians, not less."

In their own words

Six federal veterinarians talked to the VIN News Service about their experiences and concerns. They spoke of personal trials, including the fear of losing careers, retirement plans and student loan forgiveness. They also expressed broader concerns about the potential negative impact of the cuts on public health and animal welfare — areas they pledged to protect in their veterinarian's oath.

They spoke as private citizens and were granted anonymity by VIN News to protect them from possible retaliation for speaking publicly. They were assigned random identifiers like "Dr. Z," and aspects of their work, histories and locations are excluded to shield their identities further.

Many communicated via Signal, an encrypted messaging app that a large number of federal employees are using to keep personal communications secure. One said she was worried that her work devices are being monitored for "suspicious language," especially after some "mysterious" software was added to some computers. Despite their concerns, the veterinarians felt compelled to tell their stories.

"I want to get the message out," one said. "We are under attack."

What federal veterinarians do

Almost every federal agency employs at least one veterinarian — even NASA, said NAFV's Annelli, who retired five years ago as a senior adviser for USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). The largest proportion, however, work for two USDA departments: The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and APHIS, which employ about 650 and 600 veterinarians, respectively.

FSIS veterinarians work in processing plants to ensure that the supply of meat, poultry and eggs are safe to eat. Their APHIS colleagues help keep animals free from disease, as well as help to manage wildlife and animals in zoos, research laboratories and other facilities. APHIS veterinarians have been kept especially busy by an extended outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI, often called bird flu).

Annelli estimates another 60 veterinarians work in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These veterinarians might be engaged in researching the safety of animal food, animal medical devices and drugs used in veterinary patients.

Veterinarians also serve in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service. They are embedded in the agriculture and health and human services departments and work alongside civil service employees, but they are uniformed service members with different probationary periods and job protections.

'Disconcerting' emails

Five days after Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management began blanketing the inboxes of federal employees. The missives, from an entity most staffers rarely heard from, left them baffled, frightened and angry, according to several federal veterinarians and widespread published reports.

"We all take training for cybersecurity," said Dr. Y, a veterinarian who works in disease research at the Department of Health and Human Services. When she started getting the emails, she wondered, "Are these real?"

She wasn't the only one. Several veterinarians thought early versions were spam.

Even after they understood the emails were authentic, employees were confused by the "policies," including the end of remote work and the inducement to take deferred resignation (a memo now infamously known by its Fork in the Road subject line).

"They were making promises that don't seem to be true," Dr. Y said. "And you keep receiving revised versions. It was very disconcerting."

Several veterinarians pointed to a phrase in the FAQ that came along with the Fork in the Road email. It reads: "The way to greater American prosperity is encouraging people to move from lower productivity jobs in the public sector to higher productivity jobs in the private sector."

A recipient called the statement "condescending and insulting."

One federal veterinarian took issue with the characterization of public versus private sector work. "My experience is, the majority of people [I work with] care about what they do," she said. "There are a lot of people who are passionate."

'It's incredibly disruptive'

On top of giving mixed messages about employment status, the administration issued directives ending any diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility activity, muzzling government employees from talking to the public about nearly everything, removing (and sometimes later restoring) health-related webpages and datasets from agency websites and freezing federal funding, grants and hiring.

According to Dr. Y, leadership was blindsided. Her superiors couldn't answer questions or offer guidance about how to implement the new rules because they didn't know.

"It's incredibly disruptive," she added. She wasn't able to answer basic questions like what is the status of a purchase order that was submitted before the clampdown on spending? She also wasn't sure what she could say to the civilian contractors with whom she regularly collaborates.

"In the grand scheme of machinery for research, it is stopping things," she said. "When that research includes animal subjects, it could create a welfare issue." As an example, she offered, if funding is cut for a study involving animals at a government facility, who is going to take care of the animals?

Dr. J, an officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, was also befuddled by the mandates that put her work providing scientific and research information to coworkers in enforcement on hold.

"Some of these things come from consumer complaints," Dr. J said. "Those things are potentially not going to be addressed until there is clarification."

"We are resilient people here," she added. "It's the uncertainty that is the worst and the conflicting information. It makes it really hard to feel productive."

'A totally thankless task'

The veterinarians recounted a variety of reasons for entering public service originally. Some followed the example of family members who worked for the U.S. government. Others sought opportunities to benefit people and animals on a broad scale. One veterinarian, Dr. X, whose work has included inspecting slaughterhouses, said she was gratified to help provide safe food to fellow Americans — and to others around the world, as many U.S. meat products are exported.

Across the board, veterinarians interviewed said they enjoy their work and praised their colleagues.

While the federal veterinarians expressed a strong commitment to the public, they said they realize the sentiment is not always returned, especially these days. A big part of the problem, several contended, is that the public doesn't understand the work they do.

"Being a federal veterinarian is a totally thankless task," said Dr. X, a longtime USDA veterinarian. "I work for the American public, and I don't think they see all the little things that we do that are important."

She said that the success of many government programs, such as food safety, has contributed to the lack of awareness. "This is the classic public health dilemma: When it's doing what it's supposed to do, people don't know what it's doing."

Retirement, loan forgiveness in jeopardy

On top of enduring negative public sentiment, veterinarians in public service generally work for salaries that are well below what they could earn in the private sector. "A lot of us purposely choose to make less money because we like the work we do, and we value the public service over money," Dr. X said.

NAFV's Annelli said federal veterinarians earn on average $38,000 per year less than private practice veterinarians.

The veterinarians who talked to VIN News acknowledged that the prospect of federal retirement benefits, which vest after five years of service, helps to offset some of that lost income.

Now, those benefits could be in jeopardy. Employees could lose retirement benefits just months short of qualifying for them. There is also uncertainty about how accepting the deferred resignation offer could impact those benefits.

Dr. Q, a drug safety reviewer in the FDA, said that one of her motivations for taking a pay cut to work in government was to qualify for loan forgiveness. Offered by the U.S. Department of Education, Public Service Loan Forgiveness cancels the balance on federal Direct Loans after 120 qualifying monthly payments by borrowers who work full-time for a qualifying employer, generally in government or a nonprofit.

Dr. Q is on track to earn forgiveness on about $300,000 in student loans in August. "My husband and I are so close to being free of this debt," she said wistfully. She was one of two veterinarians who told VIN News they were in the final year of earning forgiveness. The other said she has more than $250,000 in student debt.

Firings hit veterinarians

According to Dr. Y, she and her team were informed late last Friday that probationary staff were being let go. Probationary staff typically are those with less than one year on the job.

In a message on Signal, Dr. Y told VIN News that staff were informed employees would be notified of their firing by email. At the same time, their computer access would be shut off. "Not sure how exactly that works if folks were on leave or had left for the day prior to getting emails," Dr. Y wrote, calling the situation chaotic.

By the weekend and early this week, multiple news outlets reported that thousands of probationary employees had been fired across many departments.

When asked about recent reports of firings at the FDA, Dr. Q replied on Signal: "What is especially shocking here is that it is indiscriminate (no consideration of the impact or performance)."

She pointed out that FDA firings can't legitimately be sold as saving taxpayer dollars. Her salary, and that of many other FDA staffers, is covered by user fees paid by drug companies. Dr. Q noted user-fee-funded staff were among those fired last weekend.

At the USDA, two veterinarians told VIN News that in the first week or so of the new administration, they felt relatively safe in their roles.

"No one is going to go against animal welfare," Dr. Z, who works in Animal Care, recalled thinking. "We're gonna be safe. You can't say we are doing anything bad."

Her sense of security was jarred for the first time when the USDA Inspector General Phyllis Fong was fired on Jan. 29.

In the wake of the ouster, Dr. Z became less sanguine. "I don't think we are going to be as sheltered," she thought, her anxiety escalated. 

Another USDA veterinarian, Dr. X, reasoned her role fighting the public health threat posed by avian influenza would make her job essential. "They wouldn't fire us as we are going through the biggest animal disease outbreak in this country's history," she said.

She may be right. In recent days, some veterinarians were reportedly fired and then rehired. NAFV's Annelli said yesterday that about 70 APHIS employees had been let go last week. He believes the majority were veterinarians involved in helping control avian influenza.

When Secretary of Agriculture Brook Rollins, who was sworn on Feb. 13, learned about the firings, she reversed course, according to Annelli.

"She said during her Senate hearing that animal disease control was one of her top priorities," he said. "When they found out that these 70 people were lost, they went ahead and put in requests for them to be reinstated." He said he believes most are back on the job.

He added that the USDA also needs to lift a hiring freeze so it can fill the 30 to 40 open positions related to avian influenza control.

In addition to individual jobs, veterinarians worry about further-reaching impacts.

"It's scary to think of the brain drain that is going to occur," Dr. Z said, speculating that eliminating know-how is a deliberate strategy. "You get the institutional knowledge out, and you can do whatever you want to do."

Dr. O, a veterinary medical officer in the USDA, said his biggest concern is how the various moves by the new administration, including the removal of important disease and scientific information from agency websites, undermine faith in government. "It's detrimental because this is going to affect generations of people who rely on agriculture," he said, "reating abounding repercussions beyond our job security."

'I'm staying until they drag me out'

Strategies to encourage voluntary departures are not gaining traction among veterinarians, according to those who spoke to VIN News. In some ways, the ordeal has made them more likely to dig in their heels.

That includes not balking at return-to-office edicts that are, at least in part, intended to motivate people who don't want to move or give up remote work to quit. Dr. Q works from home about 50% of the time. She was initially told remote work would end April 28. That deadline has since been shortened to March 17. With multiple children in different schools, she said, "It's going to be brutal. But I'll make it work."

Veterinarians who were explicitly hired as remote workers have been told they are expected to begin working in a government office as well, although, in some cases, exactly where the office will be hasn't been determined. Still, they say when the office is ready, they will be there.

The ordeal, as Dr. Y calls it, makes her angry. "I don't sleep well," she said. "But I know I will sleep less well if I walk away." She said she needs to stay to be sure research is being conducted in an ethical manner. "I took my veterinary oath before I took my federal one," she said.

Other veterinarians expressed a similar desire to stay at their posts for the American public and the animals they serve.

"I'm staying until they drag me out," one said. "I love my agency. It's not just terrible for us. It's terrible for America."