CDC gives staff 20 days to resend disability accommodation paperwork amid backlog

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified its workforce on Aug. 20 that any pending reasonable accommodation cases must be accompanied by renewed medical documentation within 20 calendar days, with a deadline of Sept. 9, or the cases will be closed and interim accommodations withdrawn. The memo asks employees to resend previously submitted files, provide updates if the documents are older than six months, or submit initial paperwork if none was given.

This requirement goes beyond the Department of Health and Human Services' policy, which only asks for documentation when first needed and allows extensions. CDC is dealing with an estimated 3,000 accommodation requests that could take six to eight months to resolve, part of a larger HHS backlog of about 9,000, caused by agency-wide layoffs. Union president Yolanda Jacobs and accommodation specialist Jodi Hershey criticize the approach as punitive and contrary to policy, noting it could force workers to lose needed accommodations. Employees report months of silence on their requests, leading some to consider leaving federal service.