April 1, 2025:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Employees across the massive U.S. Health and Human Services Department have begun receiving notices of dismissal in an overhaul ultimately expected to lay off up to 10,000 people. The notices came Tuesday (April 1, 2025) just days after President Donald Trump moved to strip workers of their collective bargaining rights at HHS and other agencies. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a plan last week to remake the department, which, through its agencies, is responsible for tracking health trends and disease outbreaks, conducting and funding medical research, monitoring the safety of food and medicine, and administering many health insurance programs.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Employees across the massive U.S. Health and Human Services Department began receiving notices of dismissal on Tuesday (April 1, 2025) in an overhaul ultimately expected to lay off up to 10,000 people. The notices come just days after President Donald Trump moved to strip workers of their collective bargaining rights at HHS and other agencies throughout the government.
At the National Institutes of Health, the world’s leading health and medical agency, the layoffs occurred as its new director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, began his first day of work.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a plan last week to remake the department, which, through its agencies, is responsible for tracking health trends and disease outbreaks, conducting and funding medical research, and monitoring the safety of food and medicine, as well as for administering health insurance programs for nearly half of the country.
The plan would consolidate agencies that oversee billions of dollars for addiction services and community health centers under a new office called the Administration for a Healthy America.
The layoffs are expected to shrink HHS to 62,000 positions, lopping off nearly a quarter of its staff — 10,000 jobs through layoffs and another 10,000 workers who took early retirement and voluntary separation offers.
At the NIH, the cuts included at least four directors of the NIH’s 27 institutes and centers who were put on administrative leave, and nearly entire communications staffs were terminated, according to an agency senior leader, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid retribution.
An email viewed by The Associated Press shows some senior-level employees of the Bethesda, Maryland, campus who were placed on leave were offered a possible transfer to the Indian Health Service in locations including Alaska and given until end of Wednesday to respond.
Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington predicted the cuts will have ramifications when natural disasters strike or infectious diseases, like the ongoing measles outbreak, spread.
“They may as well be renaming it the Department of Disease because their plan is putting lives in serious jeopardy,” Murray said Friday.
Beyond layoffs at federal health agencies, cuts are beginning to happen at state and local health departments as a result of an HHS move last week to pull back more than $11 billion in COVID-19-related money. Local and state health officials are still assessing the impact, but some health departments have already identified hundreds of jobs that stand to be eliminated because of lost money, “some of them overnight, some of them are already gone,” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
Union representatives for HHS employees received a notice Thursday that 8,000 to 10,000 employees will be terminated. The department’s leadership will target positions in human resources, procurement, finance and information technology. Positions in “high cost regions” or that have been deemed “redundant” will be the focus of the layoffs.
Kennedy criticized the department he oversees as an inefficient “sprawling bureaucracy” in a video Thursday announcing the restructuring. He said the department’s $1.7 trillion yearly budget, “has failed to improve the health of Americans.”
“I want to promise you now that we’re going to do more with less,” Kennedy said.
The department on Thursday provided a breakdown of some of the cuts.
__ 3,500 jobs at the Food and Drug Administration, which inspects and sets safety standards for medications, medical devices and foods.
__ 2,400 jobs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which monitors for infectious disease outbreaks and works with public health agencies nationwide.
__ 1,200 jobs at the NIH.
__ 300 jobs at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the Affordable Care Act marketplace, Medicare and Medicaid.
At the CDC, most employees have not been unionized, but interest rose sharply this year as the Trump administration took steps to reduce the federal workforce. Roughly 2,000 CDC employees in Atlanta belonged to the American Federation of Government Employees local bargaining unit, with hundreds more who had petitioned to join in recent days being added.
But on Thursday night, Trump signed an executive order that would end collective bargaining for a large number of federal agencies, including the CDC and other health agencies.
The erosion of collective bargaining rights was decried by some Democratic lawmakers.
“President Trump’s brazen attempt to strip the majority of federal employees of their union rights robs these workers of their hard-fought protections,” Reps. Gerald Connolly and Bobby Scott, both of Virginia, said in a joint statement Friday.
“This will only give Elon Musk more power to dismantle the people’s government with as little resistance from dedicated civil servants as possible — further weakening the federal government’s ability to serve the American people.”
March 28, 2025:
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Democratic senator says she’s worried about the fallout from a major overhaul and layoffs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington says it doesn’t take a genius to understand “pushing out 20,000 workers at our preeminent health agencies won’t make Americans healthier.” Murray says there will be fewer health services, more opportunities for disease to spread and longer waits for treatments. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Thursday (March 27, 2025) the department he oversees is inefficient. Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota says the ramifications of Kennedy’s plans for HHS are unclear and if something gets broken ”we’ll go back and try to fix” it.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — In a major overhaul, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will lay off 10,000 workers and shut down entire agencies, including ones that oversee billions of dollars in funds for addiction services and community health centers across the country.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized the department he oversees as an inefficient “sprawling bureaucracy” in a video announcing the restructuring Thursday (March 27, 2025) . He faulted the department’s 82,000 workers for a decline in Americans’ health.
“I want to promise you now that we’re going to do more with less,” Kennedy said in the video, posted to social media.
The restructuring plan caps weeks of tumult at the nation’s top health department, which has been embroiled in rumors of mass firings, the revocation of $11 billion in public health funding for cities and counties, a tepid response to a measles outbreak, and controversial remarks about vaccines from its new leader.
Still, Kennedy said a “painful period” lies ahead for HHS, which is responsible for monitoring infectious diseases, inspecting foods and hospitals, and overseeing health insurance programs for nearly half the country.
Overall, the department will downsize to 62,000 positions, losing nearly a quarter of its staff — 10,000 jobs through layoffs and another 10,000 workers who took early retirement and voluntary separation offers encouraged by President Donald Trump’s administration.
The staffing cuts were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Public health experts, doctors, current and former HHS workers and congressional Democrats quickly panned Kennedy’s plans, warning they could have untold consequences for millions of people.
“These staff cuts endanger public health and food safety,” said Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, in a statement. “They raise serious concerns that the administration’s pledge to make Americans healthy again could become nothing more than an empty promise.”
But Kennedy, in announcing the restructuring, blasted HHS for failing to improve Americans’ lifespans and not doing enough to drive down chronic disease and cancer rates.
“All of that money,” Kennedy said of the department’s $1.7 trillion yearly budget, “has failed to improve the health of Americans.”
Cancer death rates have dropped 34% over the past two decades, translating to 4.5 million deaths avoided, according to the American Cancer Society. That’s largely due to smoking cessation, the development of better treatments — many funded by the National Institutes of Health, including groundbreaking immunotherapy — and earlier detection.
The reorganization plan also underscores Kennedy’s push to take more control of the public health agencies — the NIH, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — which have traditionally operated with a level of autonomy from the health secretary. Under the plan, external communications, procurement, information technology and human resources will be centralized under HHS.
FDA and CDC face the deepest cuts
Federal health workers — stationed across the country at agencies including at the NIH and FDA, both in Maryland — described shock, fear and anxiety rippling through their offices Thursday. Workers were not given advance notice of the cuts, several told The Associated Press, and many remained uncertain about whether their jobs were on the chopping block.
“It’s incredibly difficult and frustrating and upsetting to not really know where we stand while we’re trying to keep doing the work,” said an FDA staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. “We’re being villainized and handicapped and have this guillotine just hanging over our necks.”
HHS on Thursday provided a breakdown of some of the cuts.
__ 3,500 jobs at the FDA, which inspects and sets safety standards for medications, medical devices and foods.
__ 2,400 jobs at the CDC, which monitors for infectious disease outbreaks and works with public health agencies nationwide.
__ 1,200 jobs at the NIH, the world’s leading public health research arm.
__ 300 jobs at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the Affordable Care Act marketplace, Medicare and Medicaid.
HHS said it anticipates the changes will save $1.8 billion per year but didn’t give a breakdown or other details.
The cuts and consolidation go far deeper than anyone expected, an NIH employee said.
“We’re all pretty devastated,” said the staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. “We don’t know what this means for public health.”
Union leaders for CDC workers in Atlanta said they received notice from HHS on Thursday morning that reductions will focus on administrative positions including human resources, finance, procurement and information technology.
At CMS, where cuts focus on workers who troubleshoot problems that arise for Medicare beneficiaries and Affordable Care Act enrollees, the result will be the “lowest customer service standards” for thousands of cases, said Jeffrey Grant, a former deputy director at the agency who resigned last month.
Kennedy plans to shutter some agencies, even those created by Congress
Beyond losing workers, Kennedy said he will shut down entire agencies, some of which were established by Congress decades ago. Several will be folded into a new Administration for a Healthy America, he said.
Those include the Health Resources and Services Administration, which oversees and provides funding for hundreds of community health centers around the country, as well as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which funds clinics and oversees the national 988 hotline. Both agencies pump billions of dollars into on-the-ground work in local communities.
SAMHSA was created by Congress in 1992, so closing it is illegal and raises questions about Kennedy’s commitment to treating addiction and mental health, said Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University addiction researcher.
“Burying the agency in an administrative blob with no clear purpose is not the way to highlight the problem or coordinate a response,” Humphreys said.
The Administration for Healthy America will focus on maternal and child health, environmental health and HIV/AIDS work, HHS said.
The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, created by a law signed by then-Republican President George W. Bush and responsible for maintaining the national stockpile that was quickly drained during the COVID-19 pandemic, will also be eliminated and moved into the CDC.
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota said the ramifications of Kennedy’s plans for HHS are unclear.
“We’ll just wait and see what it is, and then we’ll go back and try to fix if there is something broken,” Rounds said. “That’s the approach we’ve taken so far.”
But Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington warned that the fallout is clear.
“It does not take a genius to understand that pushing out 20,000 workers at our preeminent health agencies won’t make Americans healthier,” Murray said in a statement. “It’ll just mean fewer health services for our communities, more opportunities for disease to spread, and longer waits for lifesaving treatments and cures.”
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