2 weeks Ago
SEATTLE — Hundreds of Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) employees based in Washington were abruptly fired or placed on leave from several different offices, including the HHS regional office, the regional Head Start office and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) laboratory in Spokane. The cuts come following a vow from Secretary of Health Robert Kennedy Jr. to remake HHS into a new agency called the Administration for a Healthy America, which included purging 20,000 employees from its payroll, nearly a quarter of its workforce.
Kennedy Jr. has vowed to do "more with less." According to a release from Sen.
Patty Murray, this week, "some, if not all," of the employees at the HHS regional office in Seattle were abruptly fired. That impacts nearly 200 people, Murray estimated. There are 10 regional HHS offices in the United States.
The regional office in Seattle serves Idaho, Oregon and Alaska, and has more than 272 federally recognized Native tribes in its service area. The regional office contains federal representatives from a variety of agencies, including the Indian Health Service, Administration for Children and Families, Administration for Community Living, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Food and Drug Administration, among others. Regional offices are supposed to maintain close contact with state, local and tribal partners to help address the needs of those communities.
According to Murray, "some, if not all," Region 10 employees were abruptly laid off this week and federal officials are continuing to dodge questions about the future of the office. Previous plans indicated half of the regional offices in the U.S.
were to close, although which offices would be affected had not been communicated. At a press conference last week, Dr. Faisal Khan with Public Health - Seattle and King County said the closure of the regional office would likely sever ties between his agency and federal partners, distancing them from conversations in the nation's capital.
"We will have no idea what is being planned or talked through in Washington (D.C.)," Khan said.
King County has already lost $3 million in grants from the federal government. The Washington State Department of Health lost $129 million in a culling of $11 billion previously dedicated to public health projects nationwide. That money goes toward free vaccination clinics for young children and the elderly.
"Ultimately, these cuts will result in sicker families and communities," a Public Health spokesperson wrote in a statement to KING 5. "We will see higher healthcare costs, more disease spread, long-term health impacts to children, and a health department that’s less prepared for the next pandemic." The Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP (WSA) posted on their Facebook page Tuesday the Region X office, based in Seattle, was closed without warning.
All six federal employees had been placed on administrative leave until June. The office oversees grants, funding distribution, program monitoring and compliance for more than 70 Head Start grantees in their region. Head Start, which is funded by HHS and falls under the umbrella of the federal Administration for Children and Families, is a federal program that funds school readiness for infants, toddlers and preschool-aged children from families with low income.
The closure has sparked concern from Head Start programs about whether their grants will be renewed. "These cuts will have a direct impact on programs, children and families," WSA wrote in their post. "No information as of now has been sent to, or communicated to Head Start Grantees.
No plan for who will provide support has been shared, and the still-existing regional offices are already understaffed." Another swath of HHS employees was laid off from a CDC office at the Spokane National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Research Laboratory. The lab works to eliminate mining fatalities, injuries and illnesses across all sectors, according to its website .
Murray railed Tuesday afternoon against the cuts in a press release. "The Trump administration’s mass firings of people researching how to better protect American workers’ safety on the job is a disaster waiting to happen," Murray wrote. "These dangerous, thoughtless, and callous cuts will jeopardize Americans’ health and safety today, tomorrow, and years down the line.
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