Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), responded to President Trump’s plans announced today 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.
“In the middle of worsening nationwide outbreaks of bird flu and measles, not to mention a fentanyl epidemic, Trump is wrecking vital health agencies with the precision of a bull in a china shop. RFK Jr.’s absurd suggestion that hollowing out the Department will somehow allow it to better protect Americans’ health defies common sense—and everything we have witnessed with our own eyes over the last two months.
“Looking for new ways to make government more efficient is important, but it does not take a genius to understand that pushing out 20,000 workers at our preeminent health agencies won’t make Americans healthier—it’ll just mean fewer health services for our communities, more opportunities for disease to spread, and longer waits for lifesaving treatments and cures. Importantly, Congress just provided funding for specific agencies to administer the very programs and functions that Trump has unilaterally decided should no longer exist—this flies in the face of the law and congressional intent, and will leave our most vulnerable populations at risk.
“When our health agencies are unprepared for a deadly pandemic or our hospitals are overwhelmed with sick kids because our local public health officials can’t track a worsening measles outbreak, the American people should remember it was thanks to the Measles President, Donald Trump, callously hollowing out HHS. People will suffer because this administration is hell-bent on cutting essential services—that keep Americans safe and healthy—down to the bone for no reason. These cuts will not reduce the deficit in any appreciable way and threaten to incur massive costs down the road when we are caught flat-footed by the next health crisis.
“Over the last few weeks, Trump and Musk have chaotically fired cancer researchers and food safety inspectors, single-handedly choked off lifesaving medical research, ripped away resources for our communities to address public health threats, and empowered anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists at every level of government. I have never seen an administration so determined to tear down public health and biomedical research. and make no mistake: the consequences will be deadly.”
Today’s announcement follows weeks of mass firings across HHS, creating chaos at the Department that has prevented it 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 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.
Among others, 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.
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