USDA Scrambling to Rehire Fired Employees Working on Bird Flu

“Secretary Rollins Takes Bold Action to Stop Wasteful Spending” was the headline of a USDA announcement on Feb. 14, which announced layoffs in the Agriculture Dept. Today, the agency is undoing part of those bold actions, trying to rehire employees who were working on bird flu.

"Although several positions supporting [bird flu efforts] were notified of their terminations over the weekend, we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters," a USDA spokesperson said in a statement to NBC News. None of the news stories we saw said how many employees were affected.

“USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service frontline positions are considered public safety positions, and we are continuing to hire the workforce necessary to ensure the safety and adequate supply of food to fulfill our statutory mission," the USDA statement to NBC said.

After millions of chickens across the country have been killed because of avian influenza, egg prices hit a record of $7.99 a dozen in mid-February, according to eggprices.org, which pulls data from USDA and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

NBC also reported a number of Republican lawmakers from agricultural states were growing concerned with the widespread layoffs. They privately warned the Trump administration that such cuts could hamper the government’s bird flu response and asked him to reconsider.