\u2018We followed the science. We told the truth\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\nBrian King, the director of the Center for Tobacco Products, told staff in an email that he had been placed on administrative leave after serving in the position for nearly three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cTogether, we have moved mountains,\u201d King wrote, telling staff that their office drove adult smoking rates down to 75-year lows and youth tobacco product use rates to 25-year lows, including a 70% decline in youth e-cigarette use over the past five years.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the center embarks on its next chapter, which will undoubtedly be met by uncertainty and challenges, I encourage you to hold your heads high and never compromise the guiding tenets that CTP has held dear since its inception. We obeyed the law. We followed the science. We told the truth,\u201d King wrote.<\/p>\n
The Office of Science Director Matthew Farrelly and Deputy Director Todd Cecil were also reassigned and put on administrative leave, according to another email obtained by Federal News Network.<\/p>\n
Another HHS employee who received a RIF notice said all staff with the Office of Science and Data Policy and the Office of Policy and Program Support received RIF notices.<\/p>\n
]]><\/p>\n
\u201cAll staff, regardless of role, seniority, tenure or performance were RIF\u2019d. This was devastating because DOGE promised our career officials ASPE would escape the RIF if we got to 10% of our 2019 staffing levels through VERA, VSIP, firing the probationary people, etc. ASPE surpassed that target,\u201d an HHS employee said.<\/p>\n
Other offices within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) \u2014 the Office of Human Services Policy (HSP), the Office of Health Policy and the Office of Behavioral Health, Disability, and Aging Policy \u2014 went through a partial RIF.<\/p>\n
\u2018Cutting the most productive employees\u2019<\/p>\n
The department also eliminated hundreds of positions from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an office that HHS didn\u2019t mention in its announcement last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cHRSA oversees a budget about the size of CDC and runs important safety net programs like funding for community health centers, the Ryan White HIV\/AIDS program, the nation\u2019s organ donation and transplant system, the National Health Service Corps (that gets health care into rural and urban areas), and Maternal and Child Health,\u201d a former HRSA employee told Federal News Network.<\/p>\n
Staff at the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, which oversees the safety of certain medical devices, also received RIF notices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey got notices telling us, due to the nature of our work, we are to work remotely until the transition plan is established,\u201d an HHS employee said. \u201cFolks are getting two emails \u2014 one about being RIF\u2019d and another telling them to wait for further guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n
An HHS employee who took the department\u2019s Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment (VSIP) offer said the workforce cuts are having an impact on morale.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe actions I\u2019ve seen in the past few months are to take everything we know about how to develop a motivated, productive workforce and do completely the opposite,\u201d the employee said. \u201cThe administration [through DOGE] is cutting the most productive employees and is doing so in a manner that makes the rest question whether they should stay or not.\u00a0 The federal government still has responsibilities [outlined in law] that it will fail to execute with the workforce culture currently being created.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Are we going to lose the momentum that we have?\u2019<\/p>\n
Keith Van Houten, whose son was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when he was eight years old, said his family depends on HHS research to accelerate the development of new treatments. Van Houten told Federal News Network that his family and others in the rare disease community are \u201cheartbroken\u201d over the HHS cuts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he was diagnosed, there wasn\u2019t a single FDA-approved drug for his condition. There was a lot of research happening for the last 25 years at NIH, out in academia. And today, we have seven FDA-approved drugs on the market for muscular dystrophy, thanks to that research and some incentive programs at the FDA. We\u2019re really fearful about what\u2019s going to happen. Are we going to lose the momentum that we have?\u201d Van Houten said.<\/p>\n
Van Houten said NIH has pioneered research in genetically targeted drugs, a treatment that large pharmaceutical companies are unlikely to research.<\/p>\n
Muscular dystrophy is one of the most common fatal genetic diseases diagnosed during childhood and affects about one out of every 5,000 individuals worldwide.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cNIH is doing a lot of the core research, the real foundational stuff that you need to be done, in the long term, to bring a new treatment to market. But there\u2019s not always a financial incentive for pharma to do it, because it\u2019s so far in the future. The payback is so long, it\u2019s risky,\u201d Van Houten said. \u201cAll of our hopes are dependent on new drug development. We need the research at NIH and we need the approval to happen through the FDA process as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
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