By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-04-01 13:06:27 | Updated at 2025-04-02 18:29:41
1 day ago
Employees across the massive US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began receiving notices of dismissal on Tuesday in a major overhaul expected to ultimately lay off up to 10,000 people. The notices come just days after President Donald Trump moved to strip workers of their collective bargaining rights at HHS and other agencies throughout the government.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jnr’s announced a plan last week to remake HHS, which, through its agencies, is responsible for tracking health trends and disease outbreaks, conducting and funding medical research, monitoring the safety of food and medicine, and administering health insurance programmes for nearly half of the country.
The plan would consolidate agencies that oversee billions of dollars for addiction services and community health centres across the country under a new office called the Administration for a Healthy America.
The lay-offs are expected to shrink HHS to 62,000 positions, lopping off nearly a quarter of its staff – 10,000 jobs through lay-offs and another 10,000 workers who took early retirement and voluntary separation offers.
Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington predicted the cuts will have ramifications when natural disasters strike or infectious diseases, like the ongoing measles outbreak, spread.
“They may as well be renaming it the Department of Disease because their plan is putting lives in serious jeopardy,” Murray said on Friday during a call with reporters.
