The Department of Health and Human Services finalized the layoffs of thousands of employees after a Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for the Trump administration to proceed with mass firings across the government.
Employees received notice of their termination late Monday, marking a turning point in the reshaping of the nation’s health care work force. Those let go included people who coordinated travel for overseas drug facility inspectors, communications staff members, public records officials and employees who oversaw contracts related to medical research.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced 10,000 layoffs late in March, cutting workers across the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other federal health agencies. Some workers who received the initial layoff notices on April 1 found out only when their badge to enter a building did not work.
Still, many of them remained on the federal payroll until Monday at 5 p.m., when a message went out citing last week’s
Supreme Court decision
that allowed Trump officials to significantly slash the size of the federal payroll even as court challenges to the administration’s plans play out.
“Thank you for your service to the American people,” the email said.
While many of the workers were described by the Trump administration as redundant or duplicative, critics have compared the cuts to leaving only doctors — and no support staff — to operate a hospital.
The result is a hobbled work force, said Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and a former Biden administration health official.
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