Employees from agencies across the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began to receive emails Tuesday morning that their jobs were eliminated. Others were reportedly locked out of the buildings when they arrived for work.
The AP reported this morning that hundreds of employees waited in lines around the HHS building to see if they still had jobs.
The terminations, part of a major reorganization at HHS, were announced late last week. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he would cut 10,000 full-time jobs and consolidate 28 divisions into 15 agencies. The restructuring will save taxpayers $1.8 billion a year and will make the agency more responsive and efficient, he said.
But the job cuts go even deeper. Combined with previous layoff initiatives by the Department of Government Efficiency and early retirements, HHS will go from 82,000 employees to 62,000.
RELATED: HHS undergoes massive overhaul: RFK Jr. to cut 10K jobs, consolidate divisions
The exact details about the plans and which jobs are targeted for eliminations have been unclear. Politico reports that the announcement came as a shock to senior agency officials who scrambled to figure out which employees and policy priorities were effected.
In a letter to Kennedy, several lawmakers urged him to provide more information about his plans. The lack of transparency, they wrote, leaves them deeply concerned about what the administration may be hiding. In addition, they wrote that several actions proposed by the administration appear to violate federal law.
The letter was signed by Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee; Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee, and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn. 3rd District).
“Authoritatively stating that these drastic changes will improve the health of Americans without any explanation insults the American public and defies logic,” they wrote. “If these actions were actually intended to improve the Department’s ability to carry out its mission to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans, you and the Department should be eager to provide additional detail and justification for them. Instead, the Department has operated with a complete lack of transparency—far less than previous administrations of both parties—and is withholding information from Congress and the American public. The obvious conclusion is the Department is intentionally hiding information because its actions will worsen the health and well-being of Americans.”
They urged Kennedy to provide details by Friday, April 4 about the proposed reorganization and how the restructuring and staff reductions will improve the ability of HHS to carry out authorized and funded activities and how it will enhance the health and well-being of Americans.
Industry reaction
In a post on KFF, Drew Altman, president & chief executive officer at KFF, who worked for HHS early in his career, wrote that the magnitude of the cuts will have a profound effect on the scope and effectiveness of operations. It’s unclear how structuring and consolidation of agencies and giving them a new name will reduce chronic diseases and their causes, such as obesity and diabetes, without new initiatives and substantive redirection, Altman wrote. “These may still be to come, but changing an organization chart does not change health outcomes,” he said.
Omer Awan, M.D., a senior contributor for Forbes and practicing radiologist physician, wrote that the cuts at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention will limit the ability to monitor and contain diseases effectively. The plans to terminate 300 employees at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will mean millions of Americans could face significant hurdles in getting their questions answered or enrolling in health coverage, he said.
Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who voted against Kennedy’s nomination as HHS secretary, released a statement that American families will be hurt by the layoffs and closures of this magnitude. “The chaos that is coming will guarantee that kids and seniors fall through the cracks with deadly consequences,” he said.
Robert Califf, M.D., who formerly served as director of the Food and Drug Administration, wrote on LinkedIn, that the FDA is “finished” because most of the leaders who had institutional knowledge and understanding of product development and safety are no longer employed. “I believe that history will see this a huge mistake,” he said. “I will be glad if I'm proven wrong, but even then, there is no good reason to treat people this way."