The US Department of Health and Human Services told employees on Monday that they were required to respond to an email from the Trump administration demanding they summarize their work over the past week, reversing its earlier position.
The administration sent out a second round of emails on Friday evening in a renewed push by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency team to assess the performance of government employees.
HHS employees, which includes the FDA and CDC, had previously been told that they did not have to respond to DOGE’s emails and there would be “no impact to your employment with the agency if you choose not to respond.”
In Monday’s email, seen by Reuters, the department told employees to respond to the email by midnight and coordinate with supervisors to develop a response.
Employees were told to keep their responses to a “high level of generality” and describe work in a way that protects sensitive data and personally identifiable information.
HHS previously warned employees that responses to DOGE’s request may “be read by malign foreign actors.” The department sent two drafts of its email on Monday, the second of which removed that reference.
HHS was not immediately available to comment.
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