Murray, Colleagues Sound the Alarm on Threats to Americans’ Health and Safety Following Trump Purges

ICYMI: Murray Blasts Trump and Musk Decimating HHS, Risking Americans’ Health and Livelihoods

***FACT SHEET: WA State Impacts of Trump and Musk’s Reckless Mass Layoffs***

Washington DC - U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee joined Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and the entire Senate Democratic caucus in sending a letter demanding answers from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for firing more than 5,000 HHS workers, blatantly undermining Americans’ health and safety. Within days of being sworn in, Secretary Kennedy blindly followed Trump and Musk’s baseless directive.

HHS consists of 13 operating divisions and 10 agencies responsible for protecting the health, safety, and wellbeing of Americans nationwide. These highly qualified, dedicated public servants protect millions of families, seniors, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable communities against public health threats by advancing scientific innovations, discovering breakthrough cures, and providing lifeline services such as child care and home-delivered meals.

Senate Democrats emphasized, “As HHS Secretary, the consequences of epidemics, lost treatments, and lack of access to care are your responsibility. These firings represent the abdication of your sworn duty to ensure the health and well-being of America’s families. You have an obligation to the American people, who rely on you as the nation’s top public health official, to stop these ill-conceived and dangerous attacks on agencies and programs that Americans rely on every day.”

Specifically, these layoffs will:

• Harm children, seniors, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable communities. Agencies across HHS are responsible for delivering everyday services that Americans rely on, including affordable child care, home-delivered meals, placing foster children in safe environments, and so much more.
• Block the development of new treatments and cures. FDA and NIH nonpartisan staff research and develop life-saving treatments. Firing them may delay medical breakthroughs and will weaken America’s biomedical science leadership for years to come.
• Put patient care at risk. More than 160 million Americans rely on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) programs for affordable health care coverage. CMS is already understaffed and leans heavily on its existing workforce to maintain current service levels. Any cuts to the CMS workforce could have wide-ranging consequences across the health care system, including potential disruptions in medically necessary care, delays in payments to hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care providers, and reductions in the frequency of safety inspections in nursing homes.
• Make the nation less prepared. With the worst flu season in more than 15 years, an Ebola outbreak in Uganda, and the growing threat of avian influenza, firing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) employees will make American communities more vulnerable to dangerous diseases and less prepared to deal with any potential outbreaks. Also, broader public health response infrastructure would be less able to address cyber attacks, supply chain shortages, and natural disasters.

In their letter, Senate Democrats asked the following questions:

1. How many HHS employees were fired between January 20, 2025 and February 18, 2025? How many of these employees were probationary? Provide a breakdown by agency, position type, and justification for termination for each category of employee at each agency.

2. How were HHS employees notified that they were being fired, and on what grounds? Provide the method of communication and content of the message employees received.

3. Provide any analysis conducted prior to firings to determine the immediate and long-term impact it will have on programs and activities those employees were tasked with administering.

4. What role did DOGE have in identifying or prioritizing employees for termination? What metrics did they use?

5. As additional layoffs are anticipated according to the EO, Implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Workforce Optimization Initiative, what specific guidance was given to HHS for identifying additional employees to lay off?

El texto completo de la carta se puede encontrar. aquí.

A principios de esta semana, el senador Murray respondió at length to the Trump administration’s mass firings of dedicated workers across HHS and its many subagencies—and last week she released a fact sheet detailing how reckless mass layoffs across the federal government will jeopardize essential services Americans rely on. Senator Murray was a leading voice in opposition to the confirmation of RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary. Earlier this month on the Senate floor, she warned of the dangers of confirming RFK, Jr.—given his lack of health care experience and deadly rhetoric—and encouraged her colleagues to “show some courage” by rejecting his nomination. A longtime congressional leader on health care and former HELP Committee Chair, she called her meeting with him the “most troubling” she’s ever had with a cabinet nominee.

###