It has been roughly two weeks since Senate Democrats shut down the federal government by blocking a continuing resolution which would have provided funding until November 21.

However, Democrats have been left screeching by President Donald Trump's use of the shutdown as an opportunity to fire bureaucrats. 

Report: White House plans to remove 4,200 federal staffers from seven agencies

According to The Hill, an example of that phenomenon came late last week when employees across a dozen divisions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) received termination notices.

The website pointed to court filings submitted late last week in which the White House claimed that 4,200 individuals at seven agencies will be removed.

Out of that total, 1,100 to 1,200 will come from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which oversees the CDC.

Yet The Hill noted how approximately 700 CDC employees subsequently received emails explaining that their termination notices had been the result of a coding error.

HHS spokesperson says fired employees were "designated non-essential"

Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson Andrew Nixon issued a statement on Thursday which defended the staffing cutbacks.

"HHS employees across multiple divisions have received reduction-in-force notices as a direct consequence of the Democrat-led government shutdown," The Hill quoted him as saying.

"All HHS employees receiving reduction-in-force notices were designated non-essential by their respective divisions," Nixon explained.

"HHS continues to close wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda," the spokesperson stressed.

Meanwhile, Vice President J.D. Vance told Fox Business' "Sunday Morning Futures" host Maria Bartiromo this past weekend that "deeper" cuts in the federal workforce are on the way.

Today on @SundayFutures with @MariaBartiromo, Vice President JD Vance @VP @JDVance spoke about President Trump's Gaza Peace Deal.@FoxNews pic.twitter.com/ZOTLjJ4c95

— SundayMorningFutures (@SundayFutures) October 12, 2025

"The longer this goes on, the deeper the cuts are going to be," the vice president said. "To be clear, some of these cuts are going to be painful."

"You hear a lot of Senate Democrats say, well, how can Donald Trump possibly lay off all of these federal workers?" he continued.

"Well, the Democrats have given us a choice between giving low-income women their food benefits and paying our troops on the one hand, and, on the other hand, paying federal bureaucrats," Vance went on to add.