ICYMI: At Press Conference on HHS Cuts, Senator Murray Slams Trump Plans to Push Out Thousands of Health Workers, Gut Essential Services
***WATCH HERE; DOWNLOAD VIDEO HERE***
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, held a virtual press conference with former FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf, former NIH Director Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, former CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, and Seattle & King County Public Health Director Dr. Faisal Khan, in response to President Trump’s plans to push out roughly 20,000 employees at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and hollow out the Department, which is responsible for protecting Americans’ health and delivering essential health and social services.
Yesterday’s announcement follows weeks of mass firings and chaos at HHS that has prevented the Department from executing its mission to protect people’s health, and an onslaught of detrimental policies that are halting lifesaving biomedical research and more. HHS announced yesterday that it plans to cut its workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 (a 25% reduction) through a combination of mass firings and buy-outs and remake HHS without thoughtful consideration and partnership with Congress.
“Yesterday, President Trump and RFK Jr. announced a major reorganization of the Department of Health and Human Services. Long story short—they may as well be renaming it the Department of Disease. Because their plan is putting lives in serious jeopardy. They want to push out 20,000 public health workers, cut essential programs willy nilly, and undermine medical research, health care access, public health, and more—with no concern whatsoever for the fact they are putting this country on a dangerous collision course,” said Senator Murray. “There’s no two ways about it—this is the kind of carelessness that gets people killed. Maybe it doesn’t seem like such a big deal if you are a billionaire like Trump or Elon Musk, whatever happens, they will be able to afford whatever health care they need. But folks back here in Washington state—they are the ones who are going to be left picking up the pieces of the health department Trump is smashing to bits.”
“I think you all know that a kind of an additional 3,500 people on top of the arbitrary cuts that have already occurred, in addition to all the people who are leaving because of what they’re saying, is likely to leave the FDA unable to do its critical work. And it’s really striking to me how the rhetoric of, for example, better nutrition, enhanced food safety, innovation in medical products runs contrary to what’s being done with the workforce, instead of a carefully thought-out plan. I think all of us will probably agree there are things about the federal government that could be better. Many of us would have loved to have seen the HR system improved. But to make the cuts based on words in someone’s job description or grants that have particular words in them without a thorough consideration of the issues is likely to jeopardize human lives,” said Dr. Robert Califf, former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“The current funding cuts and delays, even if temporary, are already producing irreparable harm. Especially to those of the next generation, and not just in a few targeted research areas. Ironically, this approach undermines the success of the laudable initiatives championed by the current administration. Standing research, labs, our staff, as Dr. Kaliff said, clinical trials are halting midstream. Valuable administrative staff that are essential to ensure that our public dollars are spent wisely and that their use is tracked carefully to avoid fraud or any other kind of risk, are being laid off at NIH. And postdoctoral fellows and new faculty members are unable to find jobs,” said Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, former Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “Promising ongoing research is being stopped midstream, and the effect on the biomedical research workforce is chilling. How can we ask talented young people to continue to devote so many years of study required to succeed as a biomedical researcher when the future is so uncertain? Today, we are just beginning to see progress in such devastating diseases which have long been hopeless, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, pancreatic cancer, there’s cracks in the wall for each one of these terrible things, all because of NIH funding. And this is proven to be a great investment for the American taxpayers, producing not only extraordinary progress against the most common deadly diseases and significant profits for our nation’s economy. How does it make sense to see progress stalled? The loss to our nation on so many levels is so great.”
“Any cut you make to a health agency should be done with incredible care and consideration for the hundreds of millions of Americans who rely on their work to stay healthy and get treatment when they’re sick,” said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, senior fellow at The Century Foundation and former CMS administrator. “When you take a wrecking ball to an agency like CMS, you’re taking a wrecking ball to the people who are out across the country ensuring our parents and grandparents can get safe, affordable care as they age. You’re taking a wrecking ball to cancer patients who need a new, innovative treatment to be covered. You’re taking a wrecking ball to mothers and newborns who are both at the most critical points of their lives. We certainly have progress to make to ensure every American can access safe, affordable, timely health care but laying off thousands of people working toward that progress doesn’t move us forward.”
“Everything that happens at the federal level eventually filters down to the state level rather quickly. This is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak,” said Dr. Faisal Khan, Seattle & King County Director of Public Health. “We are reeling from the news that we received at 3am this past Monday about cancelations, immediate terminations, three federal grants. Our state colleagues in Olympia in Washington State are in the same boat, essentially. I’ll give you one example, 45 community health workers, which are critical to linking people in the most vulnerable and zip codes of greatest need to the services that administrator Brooks was talking about, and my colleagues were talking about, are now at risk in terms of losing their jobs. We’ve spent years training them, embedding them with community-based organizations across the region. That is simply not something we can reconstruct if funding should return in a few months’ time. What incenses me most as a public health professional, is the assumption by decision makers in Washington that somehow, if funding is returned or resurrected six months to a year from now, that we will simply pick up the pieces and continue on from where we were. These are not potted plants. These are highly trained public health professionals. They have moved on. They’ve got busy personal and professional lives. We have just shot ourselves in both feet at the same time. This is a very ill-conceived and ill-considered process, and we are bewildered at what is going on… At the same time, we have an HHS Secretary that keeps talking about stuff that we have to debunk on a daily basis in telling people and convincing people that vitamin A is not the answer a vaccine is. At this point in time, all we can hope for is some reconsideration of the still considered decision. But quite frankly, it is looking pretty bleak. We’re having to look at a systematic disassembly of public health services that we’ve built up over many, many years, if not decades.”
Among much else, Trump, RFK Jr., and Musk plan to cut:
- 3,500 employees at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is charged with protecting Americans’ health by ensuring the safety and effectiveness of medicines, biologics (including vaccines), and medical devices–and regulating food safety, cosmetics, and tobacco products.
- 2,400 employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is charged with protecting the American people from health threats, including infectious diseases.
- 1,200 employees at NIH, the world’s premier medical research agency, which propels biomedical research that produces life-changing and, in many cases, lifesaving treatments and cures. These cuts come as the Trump administration has already systematically decimated ongoing work at NIH to advance new cures and treatments.
- 300 employees at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which has long been understaffed and is charged with helping to ensure over 100 million Americans have access to health insurance by overseeing Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
Senator Murray led her colleagues forcefully opposing the nomination of notorious anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr. to be Secretary of HHS and she has long worked to combat vaccine skepticism and highlight the importance of scientific research and vaccines. Murray was also a leading voice against the nomination of Dr. Dave Weldon to lead CDC, repeatedly speaking up about her serious concerns with the nominee immediately after their meeting—after the White House suddenly withdrew Dr. Weldon’s nomination moments before his committee hearing, Murray released a statement calling on the White House to “nominate someone for this position who at bare minimum believes in basic science and will help lead CDC’s important work to monitor and prevent deadly outbreaks.” In 2019, Senator Murray co-led a bipartisan hearing in the HELP Committee on vaccine hesitancy and spoke about the importance of addressing vaccine skepticism and getting people the facts they need to keep their families and communities safe and healthy. Ahead of the 2019 hearing, as multiple states were facing measles outbreaks in under-vaccinated areas, Murray sent a bipartisan letter with former HELP Committee Chair Lamar Alexander pressing Trump’s CDC Director and HHS Assistant Secretary for Health on their efforts to promote vaccination and vaccine confidence.
As a longtime appropriator and former Chair of the Senate HELP Committee, Murray has long fought to boost biomedical research, strengthen public health infrastructure, and make health care more affordable and accessible. Over her years as a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, she has secured billions of dollars in increases for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health, and during her time as Chair of the HELP Committee she established the new ARPA-H research agency as part of her PREVENT Pandemics Act to advance some of the most cutting-edge research in the field. As Chair of the HELP Committee, Murray was also instrumental in crafting the American Rescue Plan Act, including its landmark investments in public health and health care. Senator Murray was also the lead Democratic negotiator of the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act, which delivered a major federal investment to boost NIH research, among many other investments. Murray is also the lead sponsor of thePublic Health Infrastructure Saves Lives Act (PHISLA), legislation to establish $4.5 billion in dedicated, annual funding for a grant program to build up and maintain the nation’s public health system across the board.
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered on today’s press call, are below and HERE:
“Thank you all for joining me on this very important call. Yesterday, President Trump and RFK Jr. announced a major reorganization of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“Long story short—they may as well be renaming it the Department of Disease.
“Because their plan is putting lives in serious jeopardy. They want to push out 20,000 public health workers, cut essential programs willy nilly, and undermine medical research, health care access, public health, and more—with no concern whatsoever for the fact they are putting this country on a dangerous collision course.
“Trump and Secretary Kennedy are gutting our ability to track disease outbreaks, like measles and bird flu, in real time and respond to them.
“They are pushing out people at FDA working to make sure our food and our medicines are safe, working to approve new drugs in a timely manner, and working to make sure we respond quickly to save lives when food and infant formula are contaminated.
“They are making it harder for Americans to get help accessing health insurance through Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
“And let’s not forget how Trump and Kennedy are putting promising biomedical research through the shredder, and they’re empowering anti-vaxxers to light federal dollars on fire by investigating bogus, debunked conspiracies.
“Preventing pandemics costs something, but failing to prevent them—well, that costs a whole lot more.
“All of this is making us less prepared for the next public health emergency—whether it’s a pandemic, a natural disaster, a super bug, a food borne outbreak—goodness knows what the next crisis will be!
“But instead of preparing for it, they are preparing to ignore it. And that’s to say nothing of the fires that are already burning today— like the opioid epidemic, or the maternal mortality crisis, or measles—which is in now 19 states and counting.
“There’s no two ways about it—this is the kind of carelessness that gets people killed. Everyone needs to understand this—this is not hyperbole.
“When our hospitals are overwhelmed with sick kids because our local public health officials can’t track a worsening measles outbreak—that is a life and death issue.
“When e coli outbreaks become hard to pinpoint, or whooping cough becomes impossible to trace, when cancer cures are tossed in the shredder, or you can’t afford treatment at all because you couldn’t get help enrolling in a health plan—all of that is life and death.
“Maybe it doesn’t seem like such a big deal if you are a billionaire like Trump or Elon Musk, whatever happens, they will be able to afford whatever health care they need. But folks back here in Washington state are the ones who are going to be left picking up the pieces of the health department Trump is smashing to bits.
“These are not problems that go away on their own. A fire doesn’t put itself out—at least not until everything is ashes.
“Trump and RFK Jr. may be content to let the country burn, but I am not. I am sounding the alarm, and doing everything I can to bring attention to this—before things go from bad to worse.
“And I’m so pleased to have some experts with me today who can speak firsthand about the work that HHS does, why it matters to our families, and what is at stake if Trump and RFK Jr. succeed in dismantling this Department board by board.
“So, thank you all to my guests today. And let me start by turning it over to Dr. Califf.”
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