Cancer researchers, opioid abuse analysts, infectious disease experts: Layoffs at HHS begin to take shape

Fred, an employee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, arrived at his office Tuesday morning like most other days. He swiped his badge at the front desk and walked to his suite. 

When he entered, however, he instantly noticed something strange: none of his colleagues were present. His office was completely empty. Fred, who is not being identified by his real name to protect him from retaliation, checked his email. At 5:10 a.m., he had received a reduction in force notification. He had been laid off, along with his entire office. 

Fred logged off, packed up his laptop and went home. No one was present to process his offboarding. 

“Completely surreal,” he said of the experience. 

Fred was one of thousands of employees at the Health and Human Services Department who received RIF notifications on Tuesday. HHS plans to lay off 10,000 employees as part of its efforts to eliminate 20,000 jobs overall, or about one-quarter of its workforce. It was not clear if all impacted staff received their official notices on Tuesday. 

HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy announced the workforce reduction and agency reorganization plan last week, though employees have been met with “radio silence” ever since as they awaited more information on their fates. 

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to lay off 3,500 employees, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2,400, the National Institutes of Health 1,200 and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 300. Leadership at the component level have consistently told employees they were fully kept out of the loop, had no input into the cuts and only a small group of political leaders within HHS knew the plans.

The notices started hitting inboxes as early as 3 a.m. ET, though not all employees had access to them before showing up to work. Some employees found out they were laid off when their badges—unlike Fred’s—did not work. Many impacted workers broke down in tears, according to several present at various HHS campuses. Employees waited in 90-minute lines to get into their offices due to beefed up security. 

Most employees were instructed in their RIF letters that they would be placed on administrative leave, though some were told to continue working until they can hand off their duties. The notices, which all seemed to come from Tom Nagy, a top human resources official at HHS, told employees they would be formally separated on June 2. 

The personnel action “does not reflect directly on your service, performance or conduct,” Nagy wrote. “Leadership at HHS appreciates your service.” 

The letters noted that employees “entire competitive areas” have been eliminated. The Trump administration has deployed a similar approach at other agencies implementing RIFs, which allows them to avoid the normal series of steps they must normally take before determining who is laid off. In practice, that means entire offices were on the chopping block. 

The notices appeared to contain errors, several employees told Government Executive, such as incorrect information about workers’ recent performance ratings. FDA’s listed point of contact for the Equal Employment Opportunity office, which it must make available to all impacted staff in case any believe the RIF took place as a result of discrimination, left the agency a month ago. Emails to the listed address bounced back noting her departure. 

Wide-ranging impacts 

Departing and remaining HHS employees warned the cuts would have sweeping and devastating impacts to the department’s capacity, despite Kennedy’s previous promise to “do more with less.” Government Executive was able to confirm a portion of the impacted offices. 

More than one-third of the cuts at CDC were within the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which investigates outbreaks and illnesses within the workplace. About 80% of the 1,100 employees at the institute, which Congress created in 1970, were laid off, including its director and deputy director. A program that compensates employees who developed cancer due to radiation exposure while working for the federal government was eliminated. Similarly, NIOSH maintains a National Firefighter Registry to track rates of cancer for those fighting fires. That program was also cut. 

One employee warned that NIOSH laid off veterinarians despite the bureau having laboratory animals that need care. CDC has also eliminated its entire Freedom of Information Act office, despite agencies being required by law to maintain FOIA functions. 

The Health Resources and Services Administration, which funds programs and health centers that provide care to those who are geographically isolated or otherwise vulnerable, such as those with HIV, pregnant women, low-income individuals and others, saw about one-third of its staff get RIF notices on Tuesday. After accounting for other attrition, HRSA has lost more than half of its employees since President Trump took office. Its Bureau of Primary Health Care, which oversees the national network of health care centers that collectively provide care to 31 million people across the country, was severely impacted, and the agency shed much of its regional staff. 

“This will have an enormous impact on the program and viability of health centers,” an HSRA employee said. 

Top career executives across the department are being offered reassignments to the Indian Health Service, which employees must accept to keep their jobs. IHS has so far been spared from layoffs, after HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy previously intervened to also exempt the agency from probationary employee firings. The agency has significant vacancy rates of around 30% and has long dealt with staff shortfalls. One executive who received the offer said no details on positions or location were provided and they doubted that everyone who got such a notice would ultimately be matched to a suitable position. 

At FDA, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health faced significant cuts. The policy office in charge of assessing the quality of medical devices was cut, per an employee briefed on the matter. The director of FDA’s Office of New Drugs was let go and its Office of Program Operations was eliminated, which, among other things, trained clinical reviewers to analyze new drugs. 

“There’s no one who will be training clinical reviewers on how to do their jobs,” said one impacted employee. “It’s insane. All of our training programs are done.”

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration was also hard hit. The agency, which is set to be folded into HHS’ new Administration for Health America with several other divisions, lost central offices for the Center for Mental Health Services and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. SAMHSA’s division that surveys and collects data related to opioid and other substance abuse, an office created by Congress in a 2016 law, suffered significant cuts. Its regional employees were all let go. 

SAMHSA will be “hamstrung for data,” according to an agency employee, who added contracts may be cut en masse due the departure of the contract management staff. They added that even if funding remains for the agency, the support systems for grantees were being decimated.

“This is going to also trickle down to states, many of whom rely on SAMHSA for critical mental health and substance use funding of their most vulnerable populations—those un- or underinsured,” they said. 

At NIH, employees in communications and acquisitions offices were particularly hard hit—the department appeared to target those offices throughout its components. The National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases laid off its director, Jeanne Marrazzo, who replaced Anthony Fauci at the agency. NIAID laid off a significant portion of its Office of Administrative Services, including the Human Capital Branch, much of its communications and government relations personnel, the workforce operations and communications offices within the Division of AIDS and its acquisitions staff. Emily Erbelding, who leads the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, was also let go. 

An employee at HHS’ Administration for Children and Families, which oversees a range of programs including Head Start, child care, family violence prevention and refugee resettlement, saw “massive” layoffs, according to an employee there. ACF eliminated its regional offices and all corresponding staff in Boston, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle. Only half of its 10 regional offices remain, which may correspond to Kennedy’s previous announcement that HHS as a whole would go from 10 to five regional offices. ACF’s block grant programs were expected to be gutted, among others. 

Reorganization 

The cuts are part of a comprehensive reorganization of HHS. The reductions will save $2 billion annually, Kennedy said last week, as the department goes from 28 divisions down to 15. The RIFS to employees in human resources, IT, procurement and external affairs are part of an effort to centralize those functions with the newly created Administration for Health America. 

AHA will include SAMHSA, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. HHS will divide up the functions of the Administration for Community Living, which provides oversight of those serving older and disabled Americans, into the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Administration for Children and Families and the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. ASPE itself will be combined with the Agency for Health Research and Quality into the Office of Strategy.

“I want every HHS employee to wake up every morning asking themselves, “What can I do to restore American Health?’” Kennedy said last week. “I want to empower everyone in the HHS family to have a sense of purpose and pride and a sense of personal agency and responsibility to this larger goal.”

Trump has called on all federal agencies to implement widespread RIFs and more are expected to follow HHS and the Education Department’s example in the weeks to come.