She criticized President Trump during the shutdown. Now she's been put on leave

Maansi Srivastava/NPR

Jenna Norton, a program director at the National Institutes of Health, says she has been put on paid leave following the end of the government shutdown.

"I was not given a reason for being put on leave, but I strongly suspect it is because I have been speaking up in my personal capacity about the harms that I have been witnessing inside the National Institutes of Health," she said in a video posted to TikTok .

Norton is among a number of federal employees who have been openly critical of the Trump administration, both before and during the 43-day shutdown.

In an interview with NPR in early October , she said she believed the Trump administration's deep funding and staffing cuts have created a situation inside NIH that is far worse than the public realizes.

"I