A wide range of groups is lodging protests against HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s mass firings of more than 10,000 HHS staffers, which began on Friday. House Democrats, consumer groups, and clinician groups are all condemning the move.
Democratic members of Congress erupted on Tuesday, April 1, over the mass layoffs ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Department of Health and Human Services and its component agencies, asserting that the 10,000-plus layoffs announced and underway this week could cripple a range of public health and social service functions that HHS has been fulfilling for decades; meanwhile, groups representing clinicians, consumers, and others, all sharply condemned the mass layoffs, which have been shrouded in miscommunication and widespread confusion.
On Tuesday afternoon, POLITICO’s Ben Leonard reported that “Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee slammed Republicans for holding a routine hearing on the FDA’s regulation of consumer products amid HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s sweeping layoffs of the agency’s workers and his ousting of its top vaccine regulator. ‘Rome is burning and we’re talking about sunscreen,’ Health subcommittee ranking member Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) said about the hearing, which focused on the FDA’s regulation of over-the-counter products like antacids, painkillers and cold medicine. About 10,000 of the agency’s 80,000 workers were laid off late Monday as part of a reduction in force impacting staff across the agency, including at the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health. And late last week, Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, and FDA commissioner Marty Makary agreed to push out top FDA vaccine official Peter Marks as they seek to overhaul the agency.”
Leonard went on to write that “Democrats’ protest of the moves at HHS comes amid broader tensions on the committee over the Trump administration’s swift moves to overhaul the federal government, including the major cuts undertaken by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative and congressional Republicans’ plans to make cuts to Medicaid. While noting that President Donald Trump campaigned on making government more efficient, Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said he agreed with DeGette that oversight is important. ‘We’re going to make sure these things are done and done correctly,’ Guthrie said.”
The layoffs themselves have been dogged by mass confusion, as Eric Katz reported in Government Executive on March 31. Under the headline “Uncertainty grips HHS as employees await their fate and leadership is left in the dark: ‘It’s madness,’” Katz wrote that “The Health and Human Services Department has told its employees that 10,000 of them will soon receive layoff notices, though it has not offered any details on who will be impacted or when they will learn of their fates. The uncertainty has dangled over the more than 80,000 HHS employees since Thursday, when the department first announced it was planning to shed around 25 percent of its workforce and half of those eliminations would come through reductions in force. Leadership at individual components and offices are regularly seeking to update their employees on what is happening, according to seven individuals within HHS, though they have all said they have been fully kept out of the loop and only a small group of political leaders within HHS know the plans. 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, according to an HHS fact sheet. HHS did not respond to an inquiry into why the notices were delayed or when they would go out.”
One coalition with particular interest in the issue is the Congressional Doctors Caucus—eight physicians, all Democrats, in the House of Representatives (Ami Bera, M.D., (CA-06), Herb Conaway Jr., M.D. (NJ-03), Maxine Dexter, M.D. (OR-03), Kelly Morrison, M.D. (MN-03), Raul Ruiz, M.D. (CA-25), and Kim Schrier, M.D. (WA-08). That group released a statement on March 28 strongly condemning the mass firings. “Today, the Congressional Doctors Caucus released the following statement condemning RFK Jr.’s proposed mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), warning of devastating consequences for public health and safety,” the group stated. “Eliminating 25% of HHS staff, including scientists and researchers, weakens our ability to combat disease outbreaks, ensure food and drug safety, and advance life-saving medical innovations. These cuts come as we are facing active threats to our public health, including a rapidly expanding measles outbreak and a deadly bird flu outbreak. Weakening these agencies at such a critical time threatens public health, slows medical innovation, and puts millions of American lives at risk. The American people deserve a government that protects them, not one that abandons them.”
Their condemnation was joined by a large group of Democratic House members, who released a statement on April 1 that began thus: “Make no mistake, we have no faith that these drastic cuts will benefit the American people. We are concerned that this will ultimately lead to slowdowns in service, approvals, and research, and impacts to public health response capabilities. Millions of Americans rely on Medicare, Medicaid, and other healthcare services and funding provided by HHS and its affiliates. Any delay in these services and funding would have drastic consequences for our most marginalized communities. Despite claims that FDA layoffs will not impact inspectors or drug, medical device, or food reviewers, prior layoffs by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to the FDA are reported to already have caused staff to struggle to meet deadlines,” the group of House Democrats wrote.
“As Black and brown communities continue to face severe healthcare disparities, it is crucial that access to affordable healthcare is not reduced in any way, but rather prioritized and improved, and research is undertaken to develop tailored solutions to these problems Moreover, in light of pervasive attempts to restrict access to sexual and reproductive healthcare for women, LGBTQ+ communities, and people of color, and increasing racial gaps in maternal health outcomes, your efforts to further deprioritize these offices is likely to further deprive our constituents of healthcare targeted to their needs, including HIV/AIDS care, maternal healthcare, minority healthcare, and women’s healthcare.”
Further, they stated, “Given the Trump Administration’s broad intentions to eviscerate civil rights protections to harm Black and brown communities, as well as proposals to slash funding for social safety net programs, we have no faith that this restructure will result in improved protections for our constituents’ civil rights or their hard-earned and critically needed medical coverage.”
The group of Democratic House members simultaneously wrote a letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., demanding that he reverse course. That letter was signed by the following members: Rep. Nikema Williams (GA-05), Rep. Donald Beyer (VA-8), Rep. Salud Carbajal (CA-24), Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (MO-5), Rep. Steve Cohen (TN-9), Rep. Danny Davis (IL-7), Rep. Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Rep. Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), Rep. Jared Huffman (CA-2), Rep. Henry Johnson (GA-4), Rep. Julie Johnson (TX-32), Rep. Summer Lee (PA-12), Rep. Sarah McBride (DE-at large), Rep. Betty McCollum (MN-4), Rep. James McGovern (MA-2), Rep. LaMonica McIver (NJ-10), Rep. Gregory Meeks (NY-5), Rep. Eleanor Norton (DC-at large), Rep. Brittany Pettersen (CO-7), Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-2), Rep. Delia Ramirez (IL-3), Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-7), Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (VA-10), Rep. Shri Thanedar (MI-13), Rep. Bennie Thompson (MS-2), Rep. Jill Tokuda (HI-2), and Rep. Nydia Velázquez (NY-7).
Meanwhile, one of the leading organizations representing family and consumer concerns in the U.S., the Washington, D.C.-based Families USA, released an extensive statement on Wednesday, April 2, strongly condemning the layoffs. The statement was credited to Anthony Wright, the association’s executive director. “The mass firings from HHS are yet another five-alarm fire caused by President Trump that threatens to torch the health system we all rely on,” Wright stated. “This slash-and-burn approach to our key health care agencies seemingly makes no sense unless the President’s goal is to destroy our nation’s health care infrastructure and the ability of families and seniors to access life-saving health care.”
Wright went on, “President Trump’s superpower is his shamelessness: Republicans in Congress would never be able to face their constituents if they voted to eliminate programs that directly lower drug prices for our nation’s seniors, help veterans get mental health care, allow older Americans and people with disabilities to live independently in their communities, or protect Americans from emerging public health threats. Instead, the Trump administration is firing whole offices of people who work on these issues to shutter the programs in another massive overreach of executive power that has become a near-daily occurrence in his second term.”
Importantly, Wright stated, “Outside of defense, health care is the biggest thing the federal government does — whether taking care of seniors, veterans, children, or families, supporting services in rural and urban communities, conducting medical research, or ensuring the safety of medications and devices. Some may wish this just hits faceless federal workers in Washington, but these actions will eliminate access to health care and essential services that keep our families healthy, create crises in communities across the country, and put at risk the programs that have lifted up millions of American families for generations.”
And, he added, “These mass firings are making it harder for Americans to get the care they need, to access the Medicare and Medicaid benefits they have earned and will make it harder for the health care system that we all depend on to run efficiently and effectively to bring quality health care to more than 175 million Americans. We call on the Trump administration to reverse these harmful cuts and, if they don’t, for our representatives in Congress, the press, and the public to demand answers from the administration about the impacts of these decisions that will dismantle health and other vital services that Americans rely on.”
Meanwhile, leaders at the Endocrine Society, a Washington, D.C.-based association that represents practicing endocrinologists and other clinicians, and researchers in the endocrinological field, made a statement on March 26 expressing deep concern both over the layoffs themselves and over medical research funding that could be slashed or endangered as well. “A major reorganization of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—including massive cuts to the federal workforce—threatens scientific progress that drives our economy and improves the public’s health,” the statement began. “Slashing federal funding and staff will hobble the very agencies that fuel medical discoveries and approve new treatments. In addition, the administration is introducing a new level of administrative review of grants at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that will politicize the process of awarding scientific grants.”
The endocrinological leaders wrote that “These actions reflect a disregard for congressional appropriations and authorizing processes as well as stakeholder experience, and will allow politicians, not scientific experts, to set research priorities. The Endocrine Society is concerned actions of this scale will hinder HHS’s important public health functions and research related to chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity and other endocrine conditions, including thyroid disease, osteoporosis, infertility, endocrine cancers, and growth disorders. After recent efforts to freeze and rescind federal funding, the Endocrine Society worries the plan to reorganize HHS is another example of the administration unilaterally deciding not to spend funds that Congress lawfully appropriated. It is not clear that consideration was given to the impact on programs with proven records of protecting the public’s health.”
The Society noted that “Laying off 1,200 NIH staff members will affect the agency’s ability to fulfill its research responsibilities and slow advancements in endocrine science and other fields. Reduced staffing will impede the NIH’s ability to review grant applications, fund research and run needed programs. Biomedical research performed at and supported by the NIH is responsible for improving the public health of millions of Americans and people around the world. The loss of staff will leave a gap of knowledge, institutional history, and expertise that will damage the research landscape.”
Further, the leaders noted, “The Society also is alarmed by media reports that NIH research grants will be reviewed by HHS and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Research funding decisions should be made based on scientific merit and public health priorities, not the politics of the day. Introducing political influence into the research process creates an environment where scientists cannot rely on consistent, stable funding sources.”
