The Centers of Disease Control (CDC) is governed by the Department of Health and Human services (HHS)
If you don’t know already, the CDC is governed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has been nominated by president-elect Donald Trump to oversee. Of particular interest is Mr. Kennedy’s eagle-eyed focus on the CDC; specifically vaccine development and mandates. At this time, and for this article, we will address CDC teleworking data.
Nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has caused some media dissention
In this regard, NBC News suggested that Mr. Kennedy, “in 2019, he called the federal agency’s vaccine division a fascist enterprise and accused it of knowingly hurting children. He also compared what he saw as a widespread conspiracy to hide harms from the child vaccination program to the cover-up of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.” Parallel to these statements, NBC News, in the same article shares with its readers, “numerous studies across countries and continents have found that vaccines are safe, prevent injury and save lives, and do not cause autism.”
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. nomination gaining support
Although there was some major media dissent to the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead the HHS, CDC and NIH, The Hill reports increasing support of late. Two days ago the publication reported Democrats open to voting for him after confirmation hearings.
While we won’t get into the weeds of policy, major media narratives, we will offer a glimpse into how CDC operates.
US Centers for Disease Control Budget and Operations
For the fiscal year 2025, the CDC requested $9.683 billion in funding; and increase of almost $500 million ($499.2 million) over the fiscal year 2023. In 2022, the CDC had a head count of 10, 178 full and part time employees. Its one page fact sheet outlines these successes:
- funding for 3,131 staff posted across 62 jurisdictions,
- distributing flu vaccines that “prevented nearly 6 million cases, 2.9 million hospitalizations, and 3,700 deaths from influenza infections,”
- partnering with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to detect and defeat the Ebola virus in 2022 that killed five people,
- providing 1.5 million breast cancer screenings, detecting 13,784 breast cancers and 26,702 precancerous cervical lesions.
Almost 7% of CDC budget is allocated for global disease protection
Do you know what is worth noting? Seven percent ($693 million) of CDC’s budget allocation is for worldwide disease protection. See the chart to the left for the breakdown.
Teleworking US CDC Civil Servants
In reviewing the Centers of Disease Control data related to the number of federal government workers in the CDC, we offer these striking statistics.
- 2019 roughly 37.6% of staff teleworked,
- 2020 about 64% of staff worked from home
- 2021 approximately 59% personnel telecommuted,
- 2022 about 74% workforce teleworked,
- 2023 roughly 76.8% personnel roster worked at home,
- 2024 a full 90.5% of the CDC personnel teleworked.
2019-2024 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Response to Request for Federal Employee Telework Data
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention responded fully to our FOIA request for teleworking data of its federal government workforce. See below the narrative response.
MEAD_Final CDC Telework Data Response With Redactions-compressed
2019-2024 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Response to Request for Federal Employee Telework Data
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC) Telework Data Table
FOIA ITEM | ITEM TEXT AND RESULTS | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | the # employees (a) eligible to participate in telework and those (b) participating 5 U.S.C. 6502(a)(1)(B)) | ||||||
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | ||
# eligible | 11,391 | 12,048 | 12,491 | 12,715 | 13,289 | 13,639 | |
participants | 4,289 | 7,716 | 7,416 | 9,453 | 10,211 | 12,354 | |
2 | the # employees listing their primary home as their alternate worksite and report to the agency worksite on a regular basis | ||||||
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | ||
At Least 2 Days in Office | 1,777 | 2,901 | 3,107 | 1,939 | 1,760 | 3,965 | |
3 | the # employees participating in a flexible work arrangement where their alternate worksite may be within/ outside the local commuting area and not required to report to the agency worksite on a regular and recurring basis | ||||||
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | ||
Total | 37 | 60 | 48 | 5,450 | 6,777 | 4,739 | |
4 | the # eligible employees authorized to telework who have (a) have written agreements as a pre-condition to participation, those who are authorized but (b) have no agreement (5 U.S.C. 6502(b)(2)) | ||||||
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | ||
category (a) | 4,289 | 7,716 | 7,416 | 9,453 | 10,211 | 12,354 | |
category(b) | 7,102 | 4,332 | 5,075 | 3,262 | 3,078 | 1,285 | |
5 | the # eligible employee authorized to telework who've (a) maintained acceptable levels of performance, per OPM guidelines (5 U.S.C.6502(b)(1)) and (b) those who have not | ||||||
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | ||
maintained | 4,289 | 7,715 | 7,413 | 9,451 | 10,208 | N/A | |
did not | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | N/A | |
Employees who did not maintain performance standards had their eligibility for telework revoked and are deemed ineligible. | |||||||
6 | to list the steps managers have taken if telework is denied/revoked for disciplined employees for specified misconduct ((5 U.S.C.6502(a)(2)) (5 U.S.C. 6502(b)(1), 6503(a)(4)) | ||||||
Managers will provide the employee a written notice informing them that their workplace flexibilities are being revoked as a result of a disciplinary action. The notice will inform the employee of the date they are expected to report to the agency worksite - 1 full pay period for those on telework agreements and 2 full pay periods for those on remote agreements. | |||||||
7 | the # eligible employees authorized to telework who've been denied or revoked telework agreements when (a) disciplined for specified misconduct or (b) their jobs require on-site activity (5 U.S.C. 6502(a)(2)) | ||||||
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | ||
category(a) | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | |
category(b) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
8 | the # of newly staffed employees hired to manage teleworkers to maintain compliance with their agreements, as required by 5 U.S.C. 6502(b)(3) | ||||||
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | ||
Total | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
9 | the # of re-assigned employees required to manage teleworkers to maintain compliance with their telework agreement | ||||||
N/A = Not Available | |||||||
10 | the number of (a) employees and number of (b) incidents per employee where appropriate steps to end the arrangement if non-compliance is not promptly corrected | ||||||
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | ||
category(a) | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | |
category(b) | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
N/A = Not Available |
Other US Federal Agency Responses to Requests for Federal Employee Telework Data
- US Postal Service and US Postal Inspection Service
- US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
- US Agency for Global Media
- US National Archives and Records Administration
- US White House Office of National Drug Control Policy
- US Department of Defense ( Pentagon ) Office of Inspector General
- US Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General
- US Election Assistance Commission
- US National Endowment of the Arts
- 2019-2024 US Consolidated Federal Telework Data: PDF (Spreadsheet, Data Tables Coming Soon!)