HHS Fires Thousands of Employees, Including Agency Leaders

On April 1, 2025, thousands of employees at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began receiving termination emails. The firings, which include agency staff and leadership, are part of a broader effort to eliminate at least 10,000 jobs at HHS. 

The layoffs affect several HHS divisions, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is expected to lose a total of 3,500 jobs. More than 800 FDA employees were fired from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, which oversees new drug approvals and monitors unexpected side effects of drugs after approval. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) lost hundreds of staffers and high-ranking officials, with a total of 1,200 expected to be fired. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other, smaller agencies were also affected, including the office in charge of handling freedom of information requests, which saw its entire staff fired.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the layoffs were intended to “realign[] the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic." Experts and former agency leaders criticized the firings as a blow to public health and research. Jeremy Berg, who served as director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at NIH from 2003 to 2011, called the firings "truly mind-boggling. I try not to be hyperbolic but this seems to be a massacre… I honestly don't know where this leads."

Update: On April 3, 2025, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., stated that some of the cuts had been made in error. He indicated that the goal of the cuts was to “streamlin[e] the agencies,” but that reinstating some of the personnel and programs “was always the plan.”