Federal health agency finalizes mass layoffs after Supreme Court lifts pause
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is moving forward with mass layoffs after the Supreme Court lifted a pause on the Trump administration's sweeping efforts to cut the workforce at federal agencies.
The administration began a wave of terminations at HHS on April 1, part of a plan to cut 10,000 jobs at the department and many more across the federal government.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco halted the layoffs, ruling on May 22 that approximately 20 affected agencies, including HHS, wouldn't be able to function as Congress intended. The Supreme Court, in a July 8 ruling, allowed the job cuts to proceed.
An HHS spokesperson said July 15 that employees originally targeted for layoffs have now been terminated, with some exceptions.
Combined with earlier job cuts and people who accepted early retirement offers, the total Health and Human Services workforce is expected to drop from 82,000 to 62,000 people. President Donald Trump has been pushing big cuts at federal agencies through the Department of Government Efficiency.
The HHS cuts affect a vast array of programs, including the HIV prevention division in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and tobacco prevention efforts at the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration. Word of the cuts prompted concern from leading health experts when they were announced in April.
“The randomness of today’s actions is reckless and will harm Americans rather than make them healthy,” Dr. Colleen Kelley, chair of the HIV Medicine Association, said at the time.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in March when the department announced plans for big cuts that the move would reduce "bureaucratic sprawl" and realign his agency "with its core mission and our new priorities."
Contributing: Maureen Groppe, Sarah D. Wire, Josh Meyer, Bart Jansen, Ken Alltucker, Cybele Mayes-Osterman, Eduardo Cuevas, Sudiksha Kochi, Adrianna Rodriguez, Terry Collins