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Distraught health department staff sob and hug each other outside DC office after being fired as RFK Jr. purges 20,000 workers
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Thousands of government health workers were fired on Tuesday in the latest massive crackdown on red tape by Donald Trump and Elon Musk's DOGE.At the Department of Health and Human Services messages began hitting government inboxes with notices of dismissal. The scene outside the department's headquarters in Washington, D.C. was somber, with workers hugging and shedding tears as they lined up to pack away their desks. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revealed last week his plans to cut the workforce by 20,000 – half of those coming from early retirements and voluntary buyouts. Meanwhile, the other 10,000 are now being let go.
Most of the gutting will be at the Food and Drug Administration with 3,500 being fired. The FDA is responsible for inspecting, setting and regulating safety standards for food, medications and medical devices in the U.S. And the second largest number of cuts are being made at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where 2,400 are facing the ax. Meanwhile, another 1,200 jobs are being slashed at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and 300 from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, according to a breakdown of the cuts published on Thursday. HHS has vowed that no one receiving Medicare or Medicaid benefits will be impacted by the job cuts. Federal employees at the bloated agency started receiving their dismissal notices to their inboxes on Tuesday just one day after President Trump moved to strip government workers of their collective bargaining rights. RFK Jr. wants to consolidate divisions of his department that oversee billions in addiction services and community health centers in his newly established Administration for a Healthy America. Some 10,000 workers already took early retirement and voluntary separation offers at HHS. Another 10,000 are being fired in the latest round of DOGE-inspired cuts. In a six-minute video posted to X last week, Kennedy says he will reduce the number of HHS divisions to 15 from the current 28 and reduce the number of regional offices from 10 to five. 'We're going to do more with less,' he vowed. 'No American is going to be left behind.' An HHS press release on the job cuts claims the measure will save the department $1.8 billion annually. He plans to create a new division within HHS called the Administration for a Healthy America. It will serve key functions and focus on 'safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins,' according to the HHS release on the overhaul. Posted by: Skidmark 2025-04-02 |
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