FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Doctors for America
PO Box: 21161
2300 18th St NW Lbby
Washington, DC 20009-9996
March 28, 2025
Doctors for America Condemns HHS Cuts
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kennedy has announced that the agency will be drastically downsized, misleadingly characterizing this as a “transformation to make America healthy again.” Doctors for America (DFA) strongly condemns this action and is deeply concerned about the impact this will have on all federal public health agencies, particularly the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which will face an additional dissolution of nearly one-fifth of their scientific and technical capacity.
The plan announced today will reduce the overall HHS staff by roughly 20,000 overall–– adding 10,000 new layoffs to the 10,000 people who voluntarily left the agencies since the inauguration ––and further slashes the regional offices in half. Sweeping workforce cuts of this magnitude are unprecedented and threaten public health across the nation. We are particularly concerned about the impact on the FDA, which is anticipated to lose 3,500 of its critical staff members. The FDA regulates 20 cents of every dollar spent on consumer products in the U.S.––everything from medical products (e.g., drugs, medical devices, and vaccines) to food, tobacco, infant formula, and cosmetics. This extensive national footprint makes the agency one of the most critical federally funded public health institutions in the U.S.
“The dangerous announcement from Secretary Kennedy today will reduce critical oversight and public health infrastructure across the country. Americans should be worried–these cuts will weaken the nation’s ability to respond to public health emergencies, ensure safety standards, and safeguard medical research,” said Dr. Christine Petrin, Board President of Doctors for America.
The cuts announced today threaten to leave our patients and the American public at greater risk of exposure to treatments that are unsafe or not fully tested to prove efficacy. A fully staffed FDA is not only essential for the timely approval of safe and effective drugs and medical devices, but is also crucial for regulating the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical devices, overseeing and enforcing post-market studies, monitoring drug shortages, and providing guidance on emerging scientific issues. As the agency moves forward with a significantly diminished workforce, physicians who rely on the FDA to make treatment decisions will be left without clear, independent guidance on which medical products are truly effective and safe, ultimately putting patients at risk.
Moreover, mass layoffs at the CDC will only further destroy the nation’s public health infrastructure. While HHS states that this is intended to return the agency “to its core mission of preparing for and responding to epidemics and outbreaks”, these cuts will eliminate the agency’s work against the epidemic and leading cause of death among adolescents – gun violence. Additionally, using a shrunken CDC workforce to investigate the repeatedly discredited link between vaccines and autism diverts essential resources and tax-payer dollars from the necessary work to address infectious and chronic diseases, and runs counter to the administration’s claims that these cuts are meant to ensure “efficiency” or “workforce optimization.”
“The decision to proceed with large-scale cuts of the federal health agencies reflects an HHS Secretary who is dangerously misinformed. These cuts will hobble the ability of the FDA to comply with congressionally mandated duties of ensuring the safety and efficacy of medications and medical devices, leaving clinicians with too little information to make the right decisions for our patients,” said FDA Task Force Chair Dr. Jan Krommes. “Among FDA’s many important roles is its critical responsibility to foster the development of medical products to respond to public health threats. This cannot be accomplished without the manpower of trained experts. No manpower equates to no protection”
DFA believes the cuts announced today are antithetical to the administration’s stated goal of making America healthy again. While the rhetoric has been focused on “radical transparency” or “government efficiency,” no acceptable rationale has been given for the administration’s efforts to purge scientific and technical expertise amid ongoing and rising health threats. We strongly condemn these cuts and urge physicians as well as medical professional societies across the country to speak out about the negative impact this will have on patients and public health.
For press inquiries and to discuss this issue with members of Doctors for America, please contact Alli Everton with Continuum Health Group ([email protected]).
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About Doctors for America:
Doctors for America mobilizes doctors and medical students to be leaders in putting patients over politics to improve the health of our patients, communities, and nation. DFA is an organization of over 27,000 physician and medical student advocates in all 50 states, representing all areas of specialization. DFA teaches physicians and medical students advocacy skills and does advocacy at a state and federal level. Our impact areas focus on access to affordable care, community health and prevention, and health justice and equity. DFA focuses solely on what is best for our patients, not on the business side of medicine, and does not accept any funding from pharmaceutical or medical device companies, insurance companies or for-profit healthcare companies; which uniquely positions DFA as the organization that puts patients over politics and patients over profits. Find out more at doctorsforamerica.org and on Twitter drsforamerica or Bluesky drsforamerica.bsky.social.