Mass layoffs are underway at the nation's public health agencies

Employees across the massive U.S. Health and Human Services Department received notices Tuesday that their jobs were being eliminated, part of a sweeping overhaul designed to vastly shrink the agencies responsible for protecting and promoting Americans’ health.

The cuts include researchers, scientists, doctors, support staff and senior leaders, leaving the federal government without many of the key experts who have long guided U.S. decisions on medical research, drug approvals and other issues.

“The revolution begins today!” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote on social media as he celebrated the swearing-in of his latest hires: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the new director of the National Institutes of Health and Martin Makary, the new Food and Drug Administration commissioner. Kennedy's post came just hours after employees began receiving emailed layoff notices. He later wrote, “Our hearts go out to those who have lost their jobs,” but said that the department needs to be “recalibrated" to emphasize disease prevention.

Kennedy announced a plan last week to remake the department, which, through its agencies, is responsible for tracking health trends and disease outbreaks, conducting and funding medical research, and monitoring the safety of food and medicine, as well as for administering health insurance programs for nearly half the country.

The plan would consolidate agencies that oversee billions of dollars for addiction services and community health centers under a new office called the Administration for a Healthy America.

HHS said layoffs are expected to save $1.8 billion annually — about 0.1% — from the department’s $1.7 trillion budget, most of which is spent on Medicare and Medicaid health insurance coverage for millions of Americans.

The layoffs are expected to shrink HHS to 62,000 positions, lopping off nearly a quarter of its staff — 10,000 jobs through layoffs and another 10,000 workers who took early retirement and voluntary separation offers. Many of the jobs are based in the Washington area, but also in Atlanta, where the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is based, and in smaller offices throughout the country.

Some staffers began getting termination notices in their work inboxes at 5 a.m., while others found out their jobs had been eliminated after standing in long lines outside offices in Washington, Maryland and Atlanta to see if their badges still worked.

Some gathered at local coffee shops and lunch spots after being turned away, finding out they had been eliminated after decades of service.

One wondered aloud if it was a cruel April Fools' Day joke. Adding to the confusion, some layoff notices included instructions to file equal employment complaints to a person who had died in November.

At the NIH, cuts included at least four directors of the NIH’s 27 institutes and centers who were put on administrative leave, and nearly entire communications staffs were terminated, according to an agency senior leader, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution.

An email viewed by The Associated Press shows that some senior-level employees of the Bethesda, Maryland, campus who were placed on leave were offered a possible transfer to the Indian Health Service in locations including Alaska and given until the end of Wednesday to respond.

At least nine high-level CDC directors were placed on leave and were also offered reassignments to the Indian Health Service. Some public health experts outside the agency saw it as a bid to get veteran agency leaders to resign.

At CDC, union officials said programs were eliminated because of the layoffs focused on smoking, lead poisoning, gun violence, asthma and air quality, and occupational safety and health. The entire office that handles Freedom of Information Act requests was shuttered. Infectious disease programs took a hit, too, including programs that fight outbreaks in other countries and labs focused on HIV and hepatitis in the U.S. and staff trying to eliminate tuberculosis.

At the FDA, dozens of staffers who regulate drugs, food, medical devices and tobacco products received notices, including the entire office responsible for drafting new regulations for electronic cigarettes and other tobacco products. The notices came as the FDA’s tobacco chief was removed from his position. Elsewhere at the agency, more than a dozen press officers and communications supervisors were notified that their jobs would be eliminated.

“The FDA as we’ve known it is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed," said former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf in an online post. Califf stepped down at the end of the Biden administration.

The layoff notices came just days after President Donald Trump moved to strip workers of their collective bargaining rights at HHS and other agencies throughout the government.

“Congress and citizens must join us in pushing back,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees. “Our health, safety, and security depend on a strong, fully staffed public health system.”

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington predicted the cuts will have ramifications when natural disasters strike or infectious diseases, like the ongoing measles outbreak, spread.

“They may as well be renaming it the Department of Disease because their plan is putting lives in serious jeopardy,” Murray said Friday.

The intent of cuts to the CDC seems to be to create “a much smaller, infectious disease agency,” but it is destroying a wide array of work and collaborations that have enabled local and national governments to be able to prevent deaths and respond to emergencies, said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.

Cuts were less drastic at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where Trump's Republican administration wants to avoid the appearance of debilitating the health insurance programs that cover roughly half of Americans, many of them poor, disabled and elderly.

However, the impact will still be felt, with the department slashing much of the workforce at the Office of Minority Health.

Jeffrey Grant, a former CMS deputy director, said the office is not part of a diversity, equity and inclusion program, the kind Trump's Republican administration has sought to end.

“This is not a DEI initiative. This is meeting people where they are and meeting their specific health needs,” said Grant, who resigned last month and now helps place laid-off CMS employees into new jobs.

Beyond layoffs at federal health agencies, cuts are beginning at state and local health departments as a result of an HHS move last week to pull back more than $11 billion in COVID-19-related money. Some health departments have identified hundreds of jobs that stand to be eliminated, “some of them overnight, some of them are already gone,” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

A coalition of state attorneys general sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, arguing the cuts are illegal, would reverse progress on the opioid crisis and would throw mental health systems into chaos.

HHS has not provided additional details or comments about Tuesday’s mass firings, but on Thursday, it provided a breakdown of some of the cuts:

__3,500 jobs at the FDA, which inspects and sets safety standards for medications, medical devices and foods.

__2,400 jobs at the CDC, which monitors for infectious disease outbreaks and works with public health agencies nationwide.

__1,200 jobs at the NIH, the world’s leading medical research agency.

__300 jobs at the CMS, which oversees the Affordable Care Act marketplace, Medicare and Medicaid.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Chris Van Beneden, left, who worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 25 years, and Julie Edelson, who worked there for 10, protest in support of the CDC in front of its Atlanta headquarters on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 after layoffs were announced. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

People protest in support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in front of the headquarters in Atlanta on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 after layoffs were announced. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

Lynn Sokler, who retired from the CDC three weeks ago after working there almost two decades, protests with others in support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in front of the headquarters in Atlanta, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

Barbara Marston, who retired from the CDC in 2022 after working there over two decades, is reflected in the window of a car leaving the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, after layoffs were announced. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

Barbara Marston, who retired from the CDC in 2022 after working there over two decades, makes a heart for a person leaving the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, after layoffs were announced. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

Peter Cegielski, who retired from the CDC in 2020 after working there over two decades, protests in support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in front of the headquarters in Atlanta, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, after layoffs were announced. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

People protest in support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in front of the headquarters in Atlanta, Tuesday, April 1, 2025 after layoffs were announced. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

Lynn Sokler, who retired from the CDC three weeks ago after working there almost two decades, protests with others in support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in front of the headquarters in Atlanta, on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

This Tuesday, April 1, 2025 photo shows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention building in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

Chris Van Beneden, who worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 25 years, protests in support of the CDC in front of its Atlanta headquarters on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 after layoffs were announced. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

A sign about tuberculosis taped to a light pole across the street from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

Chris Van Beneden, left, who worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 25 years, and Julie Edelson, who worked there for 10, protest in support of the CDC in front of its Atlanta headquarters on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 after layoffs were announced. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

People protest outside of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 after layoffs were announced. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

Hundreds of employees wait in line wrapped around the outside of the Health and Human Services headquarters building, Tuesday morning, April 1, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Amanda Seitz)

Hundreds of employees wait in line wrapped around the outside of the Health and Human Services headquarters building, Tuesday morning, April 1, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Amanda Seitz)

Hundreds of employees wait in line wrapped around the outside of the Health and Human Services headquarters building, Tuesday morning, April 1, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Amanda Seitz)

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during an event announcing proposed changes to SNAP and food dye legislation, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Martinsburg, W. Va. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

FILE - The Department of Health and Human Services building is seen in Washington, April 5, 2009.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday said he is signing an executive order to keep TikTok running in the U.S. for another 75 days to give his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership.

Congress had mandated that the platform be divested from China by Jan. 19 or barred in the U.S. on national security grounds, but Trump moved unilaterally to extend the deadline to this weekend, as he sought to negotiate an agreement to keep it running. Trump has recently entertained an array of offers from U.S. businesses seeking to buy a share of the popular social media site, but China’s ByteDance, which owns TikTok and its closely held algorithm, has insisted the platform is not for sale.

“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” Trump posted on his social media platform. “The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days.”

Trump added: “We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal.”

TikTok, which has headquarters in Singapore and Los Angeles, has said it prioritizes user safety, and China’s Foreign Ministry has said China’s government has never and will not ask companies to “collect or provide data, information or intelligence” held in foreign countries.

Trump’s delay of the ban marks the second time that he has temporarily blocked the 2024 law that banned the popular social video app after the deadline passed for ByteDance to divest. That law was passed with bipartisan support in Congress and upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court, which said the ban was necessary for national security.

If the extension keeps control of TikTok’s algorithm under ByteDance’s authority, those national security concerns persist.

Chris Pierson, CEO of the cybersecurity and privacy protection platform BlackCloak, said that if the algorithm is still controlled by ByteDance, then it is still “controlled by a company that is in a foreign, adversarial nation-state that actually could use that data for other means.”

“The main reason for all this is the control of data and the control of the algorithm,” said Pierson, who served on the Department of Homeland Security’s Privacy Committee and Cybersecurity Subcommittee for more than a decade. “If neither of those two things change, then it has not changed the underlying purpose, and it has not changed the underlying risks that are presented.”

The Republican president’s executive orders have spurred more than 130 lawsuits in the little more than two months he has been in office, but his order delaying a ban on TikTok has barely generated a peep. None of those suits challenges his temporary block of the law banning TikTok.

The law allows for one 90-day reprieve, but only if there’s a deal on the table and a formal notification to Congress. Trump’s actions so far violate the law, said Alan Rozenshtein, an associate law professor at the University of Minnesota.

Rozenshtein pushed back on Trump’s claim that delaying the ban is an “extension.”

“He’s not extending anything. This continues to simply be a unilateral non enforcement declaration,” he said. “All he’s doing is saying that he will not enforce the law for 75 more days. The law is still in effect. The companies are still violating it by providing services to Tiktok.

“The national security risks posed by TikTok persist under this extension, he said.

The extension comes at a time when Americans are even more closely divided on what to do about TikTok than they were two years ago.

A recent Pew Research Center survey found that about one-third of Americans said they supported a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March 2023. Roughly one-third said they would oppose a ban, and a similar percentage said they weren’t sure.

Among those who said they supported banning the social media platform, about 8 in 10 cited concerns over users’ data security being at risk as a major factor in their decision, according to the report.

Terrell Wade, a comedian, actor and content creator with 1.5 million followers on TikTok under the handle @TheWadeEmpire, has been trying to grow his presence on other platforms since a ban was threatened in January.

“I’m glad there’s an extension, but to be honest, going through this process again feels a bit exhausting,” he said. “Every time a new deadline pops up, it starts to feel less like a real threat and more like background noise. That doesn’t mean I’m ignoring it, but it’s hard to keep reacting with the same urgency each time.”

He is keeping up his profile on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook in addition to TikTok.

“I just hope we get more clarity soon so creators like me and consumers can focus on other things rather than the ‘what ifs,’” he said.

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AP Business Writer Mae Anderson in New York contributed to this story.

FILE - The TikTok app logo is shown on an iPhone on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)