After weeks of anticipation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has begun implementing significant job cuts across multiple agencies, affecting employees at all levels. Staff reductions are reported across leadership, longtime staffers, scientists, administrators and communications teams.
The scope and method of the layoffs have sparked polarized reactions along partisan lines. Former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius criticized the cuts, saying they are causing significant harm.
“These folks have no idea what harm they’re causing,” Sebelius said.
Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Turner, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, defended the measures, saying, “But these changes have to be made for the future of our government.”
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. described the downsizing as part of a “shift to new priorities,” emphasizing efforts to address chronic disease with improved public health measures, including clean water, safe food and effective medicine.
The exact number of job cuts, which began Tuesday, remains unclear, but Kennedy previously projected that 10,000 full-time employees would be laid off, adding to thousands who have already left or been placed on administrative leave.
Employees from major agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration have been affected, with crucial work on HIV prevention, reproductive health and smoking cessation now disrupted.
“I’m so sad as not only a federal worker but as an American,” said Steven Weiner, a program specialist for the Administration for Children and Families who was laid off Tuesday. “There’s just no heart. There’s just no sense to it.”
Sebelius expressed further concerns, calling the cuts a “hatchet” approach that could severely impact public health and safety in the long term.
“They’re just taking a hatchet to various agencies that have an enormous impact on health and safety not only today and tomorrow, but 10 years from now,” she said.
Julie Fong, a 35-year federal employee, lamented the closure of entire offices, including the Office of Head Start.
“They’re gone. They’re gone!” she said.
The restructuring will also merge several HHS agencies into a new entity called the Administration for a Healthy America. Kennedy acknowledged that the process will be difficult for the department, as the entire federal workforce is undergoing downsizing.
“This will be a painful period for HHS,” Kennedy said.
