‘Nonsensical’: Health leaders and lawmakers criticize HHS job cuts, reorganization

Critics are assailing the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services for its plans to cut thousands of jobs and restructure the organization.

Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the department is laying off 10,000 workers and merging some of its departments. Critics say the moves will undermine health and safety.

U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the department’s workforce is slated to drop 20,000 workers. The department said Thursday it is laying off 10,000 full-time workers, and another 10,000 have taken buyouts or early retirements. The department’s workforce will shrink from 82,000 to 62,000, or nearly a quarter of its staff.

The health department is also merging many existing divisions and closing half of its regional offices. Kennedy says the department will do more, even as it has fewer workers and aims to spend less money. The moves are expected to save an estimated $1.8 billion, the department says.

Georges C. Benjamin, MD, executive director of the American Public Health Association, says the department’s cuts and reorganization plans will undermine the health and safety of Americans.

“This is a nonsensical rearrangement of the agencies under their charge and an excuse to devastate the workforce for financial reasons,” Benjamin said in a statement. “It will increase the morbidity and mortality of our population, increase health costs and undermine our economy. This proposal will break federal structures.”

Benjamin noted that the federal cuts come days after the Trump administration announced it was pulling back $11 billion in Covid-related funding to state and local health departments. Benjamin and other health leaders said that move would hurt efforts to track outbreaks and prepare for future emergencies.

“We actually know how to increase longevity and improve health,” Benjamin said in a statement. “This will not accomplish it. It is a thoughtless proposal that should not move forward in any way. Congress and the American people should reject it.”

Under the health department’s plan, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration would each lose nearly one-fifth of their employees.

'A sicker America'

Tom Frieden, who served as the director of the CDC under President Barack Obama, denounced the cut at the agency.

“CDC has been the flagship of public health for generations, pursuing its core mission of saving lives and protecting people from health threats of all kinds,” Frieden wrote on X. “A weaker CDC means a sicker America.”

Frieden noted that the CDC has focused on all varieties of public health threats, including both infectious diseases and chronic diseases. He said chronic diseases play a big part in the spread of infectious diseases.

“It’s hard for many people to see the importance of what CDC does because when it succeeds, there isn’t an outbreak,” Your neighbor doesn’t overdose. Your cousin stops smoking or your child doesn’t start. Your grandmother doesn’t develop cancer. Cuts to this work would put us all at greater risk.”

Xavier Becerra, the former health and human services secretary under President Biden, issued a statement, saying, “It’s hard to make sense of the HHS cuts.”

“This has the makings of a manmade disaster,” Becerra said. “Downgrading services for our elderly and disabled, downgrading services for mental health, downgrading our strategic preparedness and response capabilities - how can that be good for the health of any American?”

Stella Dantas, MD, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, issued a statement denouncing the HHS layoffs and reorganization.

“ACOG is alarmed by the sudden termination of thousands of dedicated HHS employees, whose absence compounds the loss of thousands of fellow employees who have already been forced to leave U.S. health agencies," Dantas said. "The firings will cause reverberating damage to the United States’ public health infrastructure and health care system today and in the long term."

Legal challenges likely

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, denounced the planned health department cuts and suggested a legal challenge is coming.

“The mass firings are likely unlawful, will likely be challenged in court,” Jeffries said at a press conference Thursday. “And we also know it does nothing to improve the health, safety and economic well-being of the American people. It will hurt it.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisian Republican and a physician, leads the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. He said he wants to see how the revamping of the agency plays out.

“I am interested in HHS working better, such as lifesaving drug approval more rapidly, and Medicare service improved,” Cassidy said on X. “I look forward to hearing how this reorganization furthers these goals.”

Sen. Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, posted a short video deriding the health department’s plans. He said the health department cuts are “unacceptable,” calling it part of Kennedy’s “make America sick again agenda.”

U.S. Rep. Eric Swallwell, a California Democrat, said the cuts at the health department are ill-timed.

“Gutting our nation’s health defenses in the middle of a measles outbreak and a growing bird flu threat won’t make America healthier—it’ll make us sicker and less prepared,” Swallwell wrote on X. “This isn’t leadership. It’s sabotage.

U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, an Illinois Democrat, said the health department staff cuts will be costly.

“These workers monitored infectious diseases, set standards for food and medication, and oversaw health insurance programs,” Kelly wrote on Bluesky. “Cuts to HHS won’t lower costs. People will pay with their lives.”

States are reeling over the loss of COVID-related funds to track diseases and prepare for new pandemics. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said the Trump administration is pulling $350 million from the Garden State and he vowed to take legal action to get it back.

“This funding supports essential programs — at the state, county, and local levels — that protect public health, prevent the spread of communicable diseases, and combat the opioid crisis,” Murphy said in a statement.