Feature

CDC Staff Overhauls Create Confusion, Impact Public Health Programs

Kate Young

Key Highlights

  • HHS has promised to make the department more efficient, which the organization has tried to achieve via major staffing reductions beginning in April 2025.
  • Pushback among public health professionals and several legal battles have led to the return of some employees, but generated confusion.
  • Experts warn that staffing cuts will harm public health surveillance efforts and undermine trust in organizations like the CDC.

Following an executive order called the “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative,” signed by President Donald J. Trump on February 11, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a plan to overhaul the department to streamline its functions and consolidate redundant divisions.The organization promised to save $1.8 billion per year in taxpayer funds by downsizing from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees.1 Since then, the proposed cuts have met considerable resistance from both lawmakers and medical organizations.2-6

“Secretary [Robert F.] Kennedy has been clear: the CDC has been broken for a long time, and he is committed to restoring it as the world’s most trusted guardian of public health through sustained reform,” Emily G. Hilliard, press secretary at HHS, told Consultant360. “His focus is on returning the CDC to its core mission and ending the culture of insularity that has undermined public confidence.”

Workforce Cuts Implemented

The first major wave of staffing cuts took place April 1, 2025, when about 10,000 employees received reduction-in-force notices, with many employees discovering they were laid off when their badges no longer granted them access.7,8 Of these, about 2,400 were CDC staff.9 Days later, many of these roles were reinstated, including 200 CDC staff members, some partially and others fully, generating further confusion among staff.9 -10

By the end of the month, unions and nonprofits filed a lawsuit challenging the executive order that underpinned the workforce cuts, arguing that the executive branch had overstepped by bypassing congressional approval.10 A flurry of legal battles and partial rehiring11-14 culminated in a preliminary injunction issued in early July by federal Rhode Island judge Melissa Dubose, who wrote, “The Executive Branch does not have the authority to order, organize, or implement wholesale changes to the structure and function of the agencies created by Congress.”15

Though further reductions in force were implemented during the government shutdown in October, those notices were rescinded in November.16 As Hilliard told Consultant360, “HHS is not currently taking actions to implement or administer the reduction-in-force notice” in compliance with the court order.

The HHS currently employs a workforce of 59,905 people, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.17

Click here for a full timeline of staffing cuts and related court cases.

Expert Commentary

In a joint statement issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and American College of Physicians, experts warned, “Prioritizing efficiency and implementing their priorities is an important goal for any new administration, and we support thoughtful evaluation of how to streamline programs and staff without compromising essential services and research. We are concerned that this decision will not accomplish that goal. Instead, the recent firings of thousands of staff at HHS will most certainly make it even harder for the agency to do its job. The American people, and the physicians providing their care, will pay the price.”6

Jane Seward, MBBS, MPH, former deputy director at the CDC who served on the National Immunization Program and the Division of Viral Diseases, agreed with the joint statement, noting the difference between streamlining a department of more than 80,000 employees versus removing entire units overnight.

“They’re not carefully evaluating programs and where changes could be made that might make things more effective. They’re just cutting whole administrative units and then realizing the next day that they just fired all the people from things that communicate essential information to public health partners and clinicians,” Dr Seward told Consultant360.

Larry Anderson, MD, another former chief of the Respiratory and Enteric Viruses Branch at the CDC and expert in virology and infectious disease, told Consultant360, “In the past, the CDC has been unique in terms of the breadth of expertise. I don’t know how much that’s damaged, but it has been damaged.”

Both Drs Seward and Anderson expressed that while the CDC has needed reform, the mass staffing cuts have already done damage to the United States’ ability to respond to epidemics and its role as a global leader in medical research.

 “Secretary Kennedy himself has said that chronic diseases are very important to people’s health and he’s going to focus on that,” Dr Seward said. “Well, why has he fired a huge proportion of the CDC probe staff who manage chronic diseases?”

“All organizations have strengths and weaknesses. WHO isn’t perfect. CDC isn’t perfect,” Dr Anderson said. “If you want to make things more efficient, you look at the problem, identify what the inefficiencies are, and get experts in. If you’re going to take it seriously, it’s hard work.”

References

  1. HHS Announces Transformation to Make America Healthy Again. https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/hhs-restructuring-doge.html. Published March 27, 2025. Accessed Dec. 2, 2025.
  2. Statement on Federal Cuts Threatening America’s Public Health Infrastructure. https://nmanet.org/press-release/statement-on-federal-cuts-threatening-americas-public-health-infrastructure/. Published Oct. 11, 2025. Accessed Dec. 2, 2025.
  3. McBath Condemns Cuts to CDC, HHS. https://mcbath.house.gov/2025/4/mcbath-condemns-the-cuts-to-the-cdc-hhs. Published April 1, 2025.
  4. Senator Alsobrooks Leads Maryland Democratic Delegation In Pushing Sec. Kennedy For Answers on Disastrous Mass Layoffs. https://ivey.house.gov/media/press-releases/senator-alsobrooks-leads-maryland-democratic-delegation-pushing-sec-kennedy. Published April 15, 2025. Accessed Dec. 2, 2025.
  5. Public Health Infrastructure in Crisis: Report Highlights Severe Federal Cuts. https://aspph.org/public-health-infrastructure-in-crisis-report-highlights-severe-federal-cuts/. Oct. 1, 2025. Accessed Dec. 2, 2025.
  6. Statement from Leading Physician Groups on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Staffing Cuts. https://www.acponline.org/acp-newsroom/statement-from-leading-physician-groups-on-us-department-of-health-and-human-services-staffing-cuts. Accessed Dec. 2, 2025.
  7. HHS begins layoffs in chaotic fashion. https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/hhs-layoffs-notices-rif-restructuring-kennedy/744045/. Published April 1, 2025. Accessed Dec. 3, 2025.
  8. Case: Jackson v. Kennedy. https://clearinghouse.net/case/46650/. Published June 3, 2025. Accessed Dec. 3, 2025.
  9. Hundreds of laid-off CDC employees are being reinstated. https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2025/06/hundreds-of-laid-off-cdc-employees-are-being-reinstated/. Published June 11, 2025. Accessed Dec. 17, 2025.
  10. ‘Your RIF notice is not cancelled.’ Inside a chaotic week of massive layoffs at HHS. https://www.kunr.org/npr-news/2025-04-05/your-rif-notice-is-not-cancelled-inside-a-chaotic-week-of-massive-layoffs-at-hhs. Published April 5, 2025. Accessed Dec. 3, 2025.
  11. American Federation of Government Employees et al v Trump et al. Complaint, No. 3:25-cv-03698 (N.D. Cal. April 28, 2025). Available from: https://democracyforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AFGE-et-al-v-Trump-et-al-001-Complaint.pdf.
  12. State of New York et al v Kennedy RF Jr et al. Complaint, No. 1:25-cv-00196 (D.R.I. May 5, 2025). Available from: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/zjpqagoampx/hhs_lawsuit.pdf.
  13. Jackson C, Adams M, Greene C, et al. Jackson v Kennedy. Class action complaint. No. 1:25-cv-01750 (D DC June 3, 2025). Available from: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/680682ec68374300e4af9c13/t/683f2b6959d444604f99ae78/1748970346048/Jackson+v.+Kennedy+Complaint.pdf.
  14. US CDC restores jobs for 450 laid-off employees. https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/us-cdc-restores-jobs-450-laid-off-employees-2025-06-11/. Published June 11, 2025. Accessed Dec. 3, 2025.
  15. State of New York et al v Kennedy RF Jr et al. Memorandum and order, No. 1:25-cv-00196-MRD-PAS (D.R.I. July 1, 2025). Available from: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/zdvxkomnrpx/07012025hhs.pdf. 
  16. HHS officially rescinds shutdown layoffs. https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5620380-hhs-restores-laid-off-employees/. Published Nov. 24, 2025. Accessed Dec. 4, 2025.
  17. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). https://www.eeoc.gov/federal-sector/department-health-and-human-services-hhs-0. Accessed Dec. 18, 2025.