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Sanders Leads Call for Trump Admin to Ensure Access to Safety Net Programs—Without Red Tape
"Your surprise actions will put millions of American lives in jeopardy by adding new barriers for individuals and families to access critical programs."
Aug 04, 2025
Weeks after the Trump administration reversed a federal policy going back nearly three decades that has allowed immigrants to benefit from public health, education, and labor programs, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders led a dozen of his Democratic colleagues in demanding that President Donald Trump's Cabinet members undo the "cruel and targeted" action that will "confuse and undermine" families as well as service providers.
Sanders (I-Vt.) spearheaded a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and Attorney General Pam Bondi about the administration's reinterpretation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which the Trump officials determined had long "improperly extended certain federal public benefits to illegal aliens."
The lawmakers pointed out that the interpretation of PRWORA that was adopted in 1998 already excluded immigrants who were not listed as "qualified" for federal public benefits, but in July 10, the Health and Human Services Department issued a notice to exclude "education, public health, and safety-net programs such as Head Start, community health centers, and the Community Services Block Grants," while the departments of Labor and Education announced similar restrictions.
The senators—including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)—said that rescinding the 1998 interpretation of the law will:
- Add unnecessary tape to Head Start programs by requiring families to prove their immigration status;
- Force mental health care providers to waste time screening for citizenship status instead of providing treatment;
- Jeopardize everyone—U.S. citizens and immigrants—who receives assistance for housing, nutrition, utilities, transit, and job training through Community Services Block Grant funding and thus trap more people in poverty;
- Deny career services to immigrants who form parts of their local economies and who would otherwise have been eligible for workforce training programs; and
- Prevent some community members from developing job skills that could serve the U.S. economy.
"Your surprise actions will put millions of American lives in jeopardy by adding new barriers for individuals and families to access critical programs. They will shift costs and add administrative burdens to already strained state and local governments. Furthermore, your actions will have a chilling effect on otherwise eligible families, such as those with U.S. citizen children, lawful permanent residents, and even eligible U.S. citizens, who may lack the requisite paperwork or be deterred from seeking services available to them," the senators wrote. "Not only will the requirements make the delivery of services less efficient for all Americans, they could also lead to racial profiling or other discriminatory practices—beyond the discrimination inherent in the restrictions themselves."
"Your actions will have a chilling effect on otherwise eligible families, such as those with U.S. citizen children, lawful permanent residents, and even eligible U.S. citizens, who may lack the requisite paperwork or be deterred from seeking services available to them."
The lawmakers called on the administration to reverse the policies to "immediately to prevent further harm not only to immigrant communities but to the nation as a whole."
The policy was announced last month amid Trump's ramp-up of his anti-immigration agenda, including through mass deportations, an expansion of immigrant detention capacity, and an attack on birthright citizenship.
"Your collective actions put lives at risk," wrote the senators, "turn back decades of precedent in our country, and undermine what should be shared goals: supporting the health, education, well-being, and economic self-sufficiency of everyone who lives in this country."
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Nonpartisan Watchdog Agency Finds Trump Admin Illegally Withheld Head Start Funds
"The Trump administration broke the law and denied communities the funding they need to create jobs, grow their economies, and support working families," said one Democratic lawmaker.
Jul 23, 2025
The Trump administration has violated at least two federal laws by withholding close to $1 billion from Head Start, the program that provides preschool education to low-income families, a nonpartisan watchdog agency found on Wednesday.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) determined that the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) illegally impounded crucial funds from Head Start between January 20 and April 15 of this year, when it distributed only 65% of the money it had provided to the early childhood education program over the same period in 2024.
Head Start lost more than $825 million over that time period, forcing some centers to close.
The GAO found that withholding the funds violated the Head Start Act and the Impoundment Control Act (ICA), which restricts the president's ability to rescind or delay funding that has already been appropriated by Congress.
"HHS has not provided the information we requested regarding factual information and its legal views concerning the potential impoundment of appropriated funds," said the GAO. "Yet publicly available evidence, including data recorded by HHS on its Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System, indicates that between January 20, 2025, and April 15, 2025, HHS withheld from disbursement funds appropriated for Head Start. Based on this evidence, we conclude that HHS violated the ICA."
The office added in its decision that "the Constitution grants the president no unilateral authority to withhold funds from obligation... If the administration wishes to make changes to the appropriation provided for Head Start, it must propose legislation for consideration by Congress."
Previously, the GAO has advised Congress that the Trump administration illegally withheld funds for an electric vehicle charging system and for the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
"Today's legal opinion from the nonpartisan GAO reaffirms a simple truth: The power of the purse belongs to Congress, not the president," said U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee. "By blocking these investments, the Trump administration broke the law and denied communities the funding they need to create jobs, grow their economies, and support working families."
"Instead of trying to destroy preschool programs and breaking our laws to hurt working families, President Trump needs to ensure every penny of these funds get out in a timely, consistent way moving forward."
The administration has proposed entirely eliminating Head Start, which provides education to more than 750,000 children. Earlier this month it announced that children who are undocumented immigrants will no longer be accepted into the program—prompting a lawsuit that was filed this week by 21 Democratic state attorneys general.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who serves as vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, condemned President Donald Trump for "stealing money from preschool programs."
"No president in modern history has demonstrated such contempt for working and low-income American families as Donald Trump," said Murray, noting that a Head Start program in her state's Lower Yakima Valley was among those that had to temporarily close earlier this year, impacting more than 400 children and more than 70 staffers.
"Today, a top government watchdog confirmed what we've known for months: President Trump has illegally held up vast sums of funding for Head Start programs across America—blocking funding that working families count on every day for pre-K and so many critical services Head Start offers," said Murray.
"Trump has signaled he would like to eliminate Head Start—but that's not his choice to make," she added. "Congress delivered this funding for Head Start on a bipartisan basis, and instead of trying to destroy preschool programs and breaking our laws to hurt working families, President Trump needs to ensure every penny of these funds get out in a timely, consistent way moving forward—and he must also finally get out the rest of the investments he has been robbing the American people of."
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Trump Admin Kicks Undocumented Kids Out of Head Start, Community Health Programs
"Head Start programs strive to make every child feel welcome, safe, and supported, and reject the characterization of any child as 'illegal,'" said one critic of the move.
Jul 10, 2025
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that undocumented immigrant children will no longer qualify for Head Start and other federally funded programs that the Trump administration argues are meant to serve American citizens.
HHS formally rescinded a 1998 interpretation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), the cornerstone of congressional Republicans' so-called "Contract With America" and the fulfillment of then-Democratic President Bill Clinton's promise to "end welfare as we know it."
That long-standing interpretation, HHS said, "improperly extended certain federal public benefits to illegal aliens," thus "undercutting the law by allowing illegal aliens to access programs Congress intended only for the American people."
"For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans' tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in statement. "Today's action changes that—it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people."
The HHS rule change follows a February executive order from President Donald Trump ordering federal agencies to increase restrictions on undocumented immigrants' access to taxpayer-funded services.
In addition to Head Start—the federally funded preschool program that Trump unsuccessfully sought to eliminate from the budget reconciliation legislation he recently signed—the new HHS interpretation applies to all programs classified as "federal public benefits" under PRWORA. These include health clinics, mental health services block grants, homelessness transition block grants, substance abuse treatment, and other programs.
Critics condemned the HHS move.
"Head Start programs strive to make every child feel welcome, safe, and supported, and reject the characterization of any child as 'illegal,'" said Yasmina Vinci, executive director of the advocacy group National Head Start Association.
"The Head Start Act has never required documentation of immigration status as a condition for enrollment over the last 60 years," Vinci added. "Attempts to impose such a requirement threaten to create fear and confusion among all families who are focused on raising healthy children, ready to succeed in school and life."
The HHS policy change is part of the Trump administration's wider anti-immigrant agenda. The president has launched a mass deportation drive, opened the "Alligator Alcatraz" concentration camp in the Florida Everglades, stripped temporary protected status from numerous nationalities, pushed to end birthright citizenship, and arrested and jailed green-card holders for peacefully protesting genocide—among other xenophobic and racist policies and practices.
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Critics Say RFK's MAHA Report Offers 'Half-Baked Finger-Pointing' Instead of Real Policy Solutions
"To be meaningful, the findings of the report must translate into concrete actions that truly advance a healthier, more sustainable food system for America's farmers and consumers."
May 23, 2025
Hours after Republicans in the U.S. House passed a budget reconciliation package Thursday that would slash hundreds of billions of dollars in healthcare and federal food assistance programs for low-income Americans, the nation's top health agency released a highly anticipated report on chronic diseases in children—one that had nothing to say about the impacts those cuts will have on millions of children and instead offered a litany of complaints about families' lifestyles, vaccines, and "overmedicalization," with few solutions.
Led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the so-called "Make America Healthy Again" Commission released The MAHA Report, urging the federal government to "act decisively" to reverse "the childhood chronic disease crisis by confronting its root causes—not just its symptoms."
But longtime campaigners in the food safety realm said that while the report's partial focus on the wide use of pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals—many of which are banned in Europe—is a positive step, the document gave little indication that Kennedy and other Trump administration officials plan to listen to scientists who warn that these chemicals are linked to cancer, birth defects, and immune function.
As Civil Eats reported in April, dozens of GOP lawmakers wrote to Kennedy and other commission members including Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, warning that a push to limit pesticides in food was being pushed by "activist groups promoting misguided and sometimes malicious policies masquerading as health solutions."
"Protecting children's health and building a healthy food system must trump pesticide corporations' profits," said George Kimbrell, legal director of Center for Food Safety, in a Thursday statement. "Policy and governance must be based on sound science and reject fearmongering and lobbying influence alleging that these toxins are needed for a healthy food system or agricultural economy."
The report also includes numerous mentions of health guidelines and standards in Europe, but Zeldin was clear in a call with reporters as the document was released that ensuring the health of American children "cannot happen through a European mandate system that stifles growth."
The commission suggested that U.S. farmers will continue to use 300 millions of pounds of glyphosate and 70 million pounds of atrazine per year—herbicides that, respectively, have been the subject of thousands of lawsuits filed by cancer patients and contaminate the drinking water of 40 million Americans.
While the World Health Organization has classified glyphosate as a probable carcinogen and numerous countries have banned the weed-killer, the MAHA Commission said "human studies are limited" regarding glyphosate and similar products. The report allowed that "a selection of research studies... have noted a range of possible health effects."
Even that language was enough to anger agricultural groups and the Republican politicians who are allied with them, with the American Soybean Association accusing the commission of "glaring misinformation and anti-farmer findings" on Friday.
Kimbrell said the report "falls woefully short of providing any next steps in how the government is going to stop this health epidemic from continuing."
"To be meaningful, the findings of the report must translate into concrete actions that truly advance a healthier, more sustainable food system for America's farmers and consumers," he said.
The report also makes no mention of factory farming and its link to antibiotic resistance via corporate farmers' widespread antibiotic use; the leading causes of death for children in the U.S., gun violence and car accidents; and dental cavities, which is one of the most common chronic health problems in children.
Kennedy has spearheaded an effort to remove fluoride from public drinking water, saying in the report that exposure to high levels of fluoride is linked to low IQ in children. Widespread community water fluoridation has been linked to a sharp decrease in tooth decay among children, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hailing the practice, now used in 60% of the country, as a major public health achievement.
Medical organizations have said concerns about fluoridation raised by Kennedy and others are unfounded.
During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy dismissed the idea that healthcare should be a human right—falsely claiming Americans prefer the for-profit health insurance industry to government-run systems that have been shown to be far less costly and have better outcomes. The report also makes no mention of the harms of tying healthcare to profit, even as it compared U.S. life expectancy and healthcare costs unfavorably to those in other wealthy nations.
In a video posted to social media, dietician Jessica Knurick emphasized that Kennedy is right to point out the nation's "chronic disease problem."
"But he gets the causes and the solutions completely wrong," she said. "His causes are not evidence-based and they play into the idea of scientific and regulatory corruption to erode trust in science. And his solutions distract from evidence-based solutions that could actually help while actively undermining public health."
With the MAHA Report focusing heavily on sedentary lifestyles and low-income people's reliance on ultraprocessed, inexpensive food, Food and Water Watch (FWW) senior policy analyst Rebecca Wolf said the document amounts to "half-baked finger-pointing that blames the sick."
"Improving public health in America cannot happen without reigning in corporate control. It is a grave mistake to exclude Big Ag from culpability," said Wolf. "Any administration serious about public health must strictly regulate the corporations putting our food and water supplies at risk."
Policy solutions that went ignored in the report, said Wolf, include:
- Closing the "Generally Recognized as Safe" loophole that allows corporations to self-certify the safety of food additives without Food and Drug Administration approval;
- Canceling plans to roll back existing regulations for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS;
- Fully funding and staffing food safety agencies, which have been slashed by the Trump administration; and
- Stopping state legislatures from passing laws called "Cancer Gag Act legislation" by opponents, which would limit pesticide manufacturer liability in health-related lawsuits.
"The report is right to highlight the health impacts of ultraprocessed foods, microplastics, PFAS, and pesticides," said FWW, "but falls short of directing real policy recommendations capable of reigning in corporate polluters."
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'Absolute Bloodbath' as Trump Administration Eviscerates Federal Health Agencies
"There is no way this makes Americans healthier."
Apr 01, 2025
HIV prevention. Anti-tobacco advocacy. The safety of mining workers.
All are among the health priorities that evidently have no place in U.S. President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy's vision to "Make America Healthy Again," following the mass firing of 10,000 people at the nation's top health agencies on Tuesday.
The layoffs hit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with some staffers informed of their dismissal after they arrived at work—only to be told to return home.
Kayla Tausche at CNN reported that laid off employees at the HHS building in Rockville, Maryland were forced to do a "walk of shame" past dozens of their former colleagues who were lined up outside the building, waiting to learn their own fate.
The employees who were laid off Monday evening into Tuesday are the latest of more than 100,000 federal workers who have lost their jobs since Trump took office and placed billionaire tech mogul and megadonor Elon Musk at the help of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Last week, Kennedy said the federal health agency workforce would be reduced from about 82,000 to 62,000 people, with the restructuring making room for what he called "the Administration for a Healthy America" at HHS.
"We're going to do more with less," said the secretary, who has expressed skepticism about the scientifically proven benefits of vaccinations and claimed without evidence that the rate of chronic disease rose over the four years that former President Joe Biden was in the White House.
Kennedy said last week that communications for the health agencies would be brought under his control in the "restructuring," and many of the layoffs impacted people responsible for relaying information to the public.
Twenty people who handle public communications for one National Institutes of Health (NIH) program analyzing the genes of volunteers for health research were among those placed on administrative leave Tuesday—a precursor to being laid off, one official told USA Today.
The FDA's Office of Media Affairs was also disbanded, as well as most of the 50-person communications team for the agency's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, which manages information on drug approvals, shortages, and potential risks.
"The general public likely won't feel the results of these HHS layoffs immediately," said Larry Levitt, executive vice president of KFF. "But eventually, these layoffs will affect the health information available to people, access to care and prevention, and oversight of health and social services."
Other impacted employees include those in internal agencies focused on the health of senior citizens, people with disabilities, and minority communities, and workers studying asthma, lead poisoning, radiation damage, and the health effects of extreme heat and wildfires.
The administration appeared to see HIV prevention as a key target, placing the director of the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention on administrative leave and dismantling teams that do HIV research and surveillance.
Despite his claims last week about wanting to fight chronic disease, Kennedy did not outline plans to better equip the federal government to fight heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. At the CDC, The New York Times reported Tuesday, "entire departments studying chronic diseases and environmental problems were cut."
In a post on LinkedIn on Tuesday, former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, who served under Biden and former President Barack Obama, said the agency "as we've known it is finished" and warned the federal government was losing critical institutional knowledge by firing thousands of people.
"I believe that history will see this [as] a huge mistake," said Califf. "I will be glad if I'm proven wrong, but even then there is no good reason to treat people this way. It will be interesting to hear from the new leadership how they plan to put 'Humpty Dumpty' back together again."
Journalist Sam Stein of The Bulwark called the mass firings "an absolute bloodbath" with a "generation of scientists, healthcare officials being wiped out."
Brown University professor Dr. Craig Spencer said the country "will regret this."
"These are the people who make sure the medications you and your children take are safe. These are the people who perform and oversee research on cancer, infant health, and so, so, so much more. These are the people who make sure new devices that physicians and patients use are effective," said Spencer. "And now, thousands of them are gone. There is no way this makes Americans healthier."
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Trump Administration Slammed for Slashing $12 Billion in Funding for State Health Services
"These are not people who want to make America healthy," said one advocate for people with disabilities. "They want to make the sick disappear."
Mar 26, 2025
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services canceled more than $12 billion in federal funding for state health departments across the nation, money that is used to track infectious diseases and provide mental health services, addiction treatment, and other critical care.
NBC News reported Wednesday that $11.4 billion of the canceled grants were earmarked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for state and community health departments, nongovernmental organizations, and international recipients following the Covid-19 pandemic. Around $1 billion worth of grants are being pulled from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
"The Covid-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a nonexistent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago," Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement. "HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President [Donald] Trump's mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again."
This is just stunning. HHS has abruptly canceled more than $12 billion in federal grants to states that were being used for tracking infectious diseases, mental health services, addiction treatment and other urgent health issues.
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— Charles Ornstein ( @charlesornstein.bsky.social) March 26, 2025 at 1:36 PM
However, experts point to the certainty of future pandemics—like an avian flu strain that mutates to pass between humans—in urging public health policy planners to maintain or even increase preparedness and response funding.
NBC News reported that the 13 agencies overseen by HHS were sent notices starting Monday, which informed them that they have 30 days to reconcile their expenditures.
For some state and community healthcare providers, the effects of the cuts were immediate.
There was an abrupt $11B cut to local/state public health (PH) infrastructure yesterday. I don't think people realize what this means: -Want an updated system to check your immunizations instead of digging through docs? PH no longer able to carry out upgrades to immunization information systems
— Katelyn Jetelina ( @kkjetelina.bsky.social) March 26, 2025 at 11:34 AM
As The New York Times reported:
In Lubbock, Texas, public health officials have received orders to stop work supported by three grants that helped fund the response to the widening measles outbreak there, according to Katherine Wells, the city's director of public health.
On Tuesday, some state health departments were preparing to lay off dozens of epidemiologists and data scientists. Others, including Texas, Maine, and Rhode Island, were still scrambling to understand the impact of the cuts before taking any action.
In interviews, state health officials predicted that thousands of health department employees and contract workers could lose their jobs nationwide. Some predicted the loss of as much as 90% of staff from some infectious disease teams.
"We learned yesterday that the federal government has unilaterally terminated approximately $226 million in grants to Minnesota Department of Health related to the Covid-19 pandemic," Minnesota Commissioner of Health Dr. Brooke Cunningham said in a statement. "This termination is effective immediately and impacts ongoing work and contracts. This action was sudden and unexpected."
Lori Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told CBS News that much of the funding would have expired soon anyway.
"It's ending in the next six months," she said. "There's no reason—why rescind it now? It's just cruel and unusual behavior."
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment communications director Kristina Iodice told NBC News, "We are concerned that this sudden loss of federal funding threatens Colorado's ability to track Covid-19 trends and other emerging diseases, modernize disease data systems, respond to outbreaks, and provide critical immunization access, outreach, and education—leaving communities more vulnerable to future public health crises."
The first Trump administration was widely criticized for shortcomings in these fields. A congressional panel issued a 2022 report accusing top administration officials of "failed stewardship" and a "persistent pattern of political interference" that undermined the nation's response to Covid-19, which to date has killed more than 1.2 million people in the United States and is still claiming hundreds of lives each week, according to CDC figures.
Wednesday's reportingd came as HHS, CDC, and other critical agencies braced for more cuts and layoffs ordered by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his aides are also "nearing their final decisions on a sweeping restructuring of the department," CBS News reported last week.
Last month, Senate Democrats demanded answers from Kennedy regarding the purge of more than 5,000 HHS workers after the agency "blindly followed" a "baseless directive" by Trump and DOGE that the lawmakers said is "blatantly undermining Americans' health and safety."
As Common Dreams reported Wednesday, public health experts have also condemned the administration's decision to terminate funding for Gavi, the global vaccine alliance—a move critics warned could result in the deaths of over 1 million children in the Global South.
"Investing in Gavi brings other benefits for our world and the American people," the alliance said. "Here's why: By maintaining global stockpiles of vaccines against deadly diseases like Ebola, mpox, and yellow fever, we help keep America safe. These diseases do not respect borders, they can cross continents in hours and cost billions of dollars."
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Banning NIH Grant Meetings, Trump Circumvents Courts That Blocked Funding Freeze
"The discoveries that aren't made—you can't point to them, because they will never be made."
Feb 22, 2025
The Trump administration's attempt to freeze all federal grants, including those at the National Institutes of Health, has been temporarily blocked since late last month, when two federal judges ruled that President Donald Trump did not have the authority to pull back the funding—but new reporting on Friday detailed how the administration has circumvented the rulings, threatening critical funding for biomedical research.
As The New York Times reported, the Trump administration has issued an order "forbidding health officials from giving public notice of upcoming grant review meetings," blocking "an obscure but necessary cog in the grant-making machinery that delivers some $47 billion annually to research on Alzheimer's, heart disease, and other ailments."
Notices are required before any federal meetings can be held, and the order led to the cancellation of 42 out of 47 previously-scheduled NIH grant application meetings this week, impacting research that would have studied pancreatic cancer, addiction, brain injuries, and children's health, among other subjects.
Without public notices being posted in the Federal Register by the NIH, about 16,000 grant applications asking for $1.5 billion in research funding have already been stalled, reported NPR.
"Applications will come in and basically they go into a black hole and nothing can be done with them," one person who remained anonymous told NPR. "That is where we are now."
The Times reported that an email from an NIH official on February 7 stated that the order blocking public notices "came from the HHS level," referring to the Department of Health and Human Services. The ban was in effect "indefinitely," said the official.
"Applications will come in and basically they go into a black hole and nothing can be done with them. That is where we are now."
"People in every community have to understand what gutting NIH funding means," said U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) on Saturday. "The cures unlocked by NIH-funded researchers might one day save your life—but because of Trump and [Department of Government Efficiency head Elon] Musk, now they might never be discovered at all."
Many health researchers and others who rely on federal grants breathed a sigh of relief when Trump's funding freeze was blocked by the judicial system late last month, and Judge Angel Kelley of the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Friday extended a separate order that aimed to cut about $4 billion in grants that it provides for "indirect costs" such as lab equipment and facilities maintenance.
Regarding Trump's broader federal funding freeze, U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island heard arguments in the case on Friday, and said he hopes to issue a final ruling in about a week following his temporary restraining order last month.
But unless it is lifted, the HHS order blocking grant review meetings will likely lead to "missing" discoveries, researchers told The Washington Post on Saturday.
Without the ability to secure grant funding, research organizations are preparing to lay off researchers and accept fewer students to work in their laboratories, the Post reported.
"The discoveries that aren't made—you can't point to them, because they will never be made," Jeremy Berg, former director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, told the Post. "The hard part is you don't know what you missed until years later, when something doesn't happen."
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'Abdication of Your Sworn Duty': Senate Dems Grill RFK Jr on Mass Firing of Health Workers
They warn cuts "will endanger children, seniors, and at-risk communities, set medical progress back by decades, curtail patient access to care, and make the nation less prepared for emerging public health threats."
Feb 21, 2025
Senate Democrats on Friday demanded answers from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. regarding the purge of more than 5,000 agency workers after HHS "blindly followed" a "baseless directive" by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency that the lawmakers said is "blatantly undermining Americans' health and safety."
In one
letter to Kennedy signed by all 45 Democratic senators plus Independent Sens. Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the lawmakers said that "as HHS secretary, the consequences of epidemics, lost treatments, and lack of access to care are your responsibility."
"The Trump administration is firing staff and harming programs that Americans rely on every day."
"These firings represent the abdication of your sworn duty to ensure the health and well-being of America's families," the letter states. "You have an obligation to the American people, who rely on you as the nation's top public health official, to stop these ill-conceived and dangerous attacks on agencies and programs that Americans rely on every day."
"These uninformed, baseless firings will reportedly continue across HHS under your leadership," the senators continued. "The Trump administration is firing staff and harming programs that Americans rely on every day, and these arbitrary cuts will endanger children, seniors, and at-risk communities, set medical progress back by decades, curtail patient access to care, and make the nation less prepared for emerging public health threats."
The lawmakers want to know:
- How many HHS employees were fired between January 20, 2025 and February 18, 2025?
- How many of these employees were probationary?
- How were HHS employees notified that they were being fired, and on what grounds?
- What, if any, analysis was conducted prior to firings to determine the immediate and long-term impact they will have?
- What role did the Department of Government Efficiency have in identifying or prioritizing employees for termination?
- What metrics did DOGE use in doing so?
- What specific guidance was given to HHS for identifying additional employees to lay off?
Roll Call reported that Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.) also sent Kennedy a letter on Friday, this one expressing concern that mass firings at the Food and Drug Administration—an HHS agency—could adversely affect food safety and drug and medical device approvals.
"Without adequate staff at each center that receives user fees, the FDA may not be able to collect or spend user fees for the upcoming fiscal year," the lawmakers wrote, according to Roll Call. "This would be seriously detrimental to our medical drug and device programs by slowing the premarket review process, stifling innovation and preventing patients from accessing potentially lifesaving products."
Ten Senate Democrats so far have also signed a letter to Trump condemning the looming layoff of hundreds of staff at the Indian Health Service (IHS)—another HHS agency—amidst a healthcare worker shortage in Indigenous communities across the nation.
"Not only will this lead to worse health outcomes, but overall costs will also rise," the letter argues. "With less healthcare services at existing IHS facilities, there will be increased Purchased Referred Care referrals. This will increase costs for the federal government and require increased travel, accommodations, and expenses, creating increased hardships and barriers for patients and families seeking care far from where they live on tribal lands."
The lawmakers' letters come as thousands of federal workers—especially those employed under probationary conditions—are being fired from their jobs, many under what critics claim are false pretexts of poor performance.
The HHS layoffs also come amid
fears that Trump will not protect Medicare after the president's Thursday endorsement of a plan by GOP House lawmakers that would slash social spending so severely that even far-right Sen. Josh Hawley (D-Mo.) has warned against it. This, in order to fund an extension of the president's 2017 "tax scam" that primarily benefited the wealthy.
Early Friday, Senate Republicansapproved a separate and narrower budget resolution after rejecting Democratic amendments to avert cuts to federal health and other social programs.
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'How Does This Help Working People?' Fury Over Trump Mass Firing of Health Workforce
"This incompetence and arson is about to hit Americans in multiple ways," said one senator.
Feb 17, 2025
Reducing the price of groceries—a key campaign promise made by U.S. President Donald Trump—has thus far ranked low on his administration's list of priorities, but mass firings at numerous federal health agencies over the weekend suggested that scaling back efforts to ensure proper nutrition for infants, the safety of medical devices, and better maternal health outcomes are all part of Trump's upside-down vision for improving Americans' lives.
Roughly 3,600 federal employees across the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and other agencies were out of a job Monday after receiving emails over the weekend claiming that their "performance has not been adequate to justify further employment" in the federal government.
The terminations targeted probationary employees—those who have been working in their positions for less than a year—and came amid the spread of bird flu, or H5N1, among wild bird flocks and commercial poultry across the country.
The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which works to prevent and prepare for public health emergencies and oversees pandemic stockpiles, was among the offices hit.
In a separate action, 25% of staffers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's program office for its network of animal research laboratories were fired. The National Animal Health Laboratory Network program office manages data related to the protocols followed by federal labs across the country, ensuring that scientists can accurately track animal diseases like bird flu.
"On top of firings at the USDA national testing lab this weekend too... this is VERY BAD," said Michigan state Rep. Carrie Rheingans (D-47) of the ASPR firings.
The spread of H5N1 among millions of birds, alongside price-gouging by corporate giants, has been linked to the skyrocketing price of eggs—a topic Trump raised frequently on the campaign trail and said he would address promptly when he took office.
About two dozen workers at the CDC's Laboratory Leadership Service (LLS), a fellowship program that trains scientist to detect and address public health threats, were also among those who were swept up in the HHS purge led by the Department of Government Efficiency, the advisory body run by billionaire Trump donor Elon Musk.
"We have come up with a new slogan for LLS: 'the disease detectors,'" one fellow told NBC News. "If you're not testing, you don't know what disease is there."
The series of health agency firings came as a tuberculosis outbreak has caused recent alarm in Kansas and an ongoing measles outbreak in Texas spread to at least 49 people, with more than a dozen school-age children hospitalized and officials warning 200-300 people could currently be infected.
At Food Safety News, Dr. Peter G. Lurie, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, wrote that the widespread purge of federal employees will likely "make it harder to recruit qualified staff to fill the roles moving forward"—with consequences for people across the country who rely on the work of experts in public health and nutrition.
"Many candidates with high qualifications will likely opt not to work for a new boss whose vision for progress includes the arbitrary mass elimination of new employees," wrote Lurie. "The FDA has struggled in recent years to recruit and retain qualified staff with expertise in topics like infant nutrition, where specialized training may be critical to make policy decisions affecting millions of Americans."
While Congress recently tried to address staffing difficulties by granting new hiring authorities to the FDA, "new employees brought in recently could be subject to cuts, impacting current teams and making it harder to recruit moving forward," wrote Lurie.
One policy analyst at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, Arielle Kane, told Politico that before she received a termination email on Saturday she was working on a pilot program for Medicaid in 15 states aimed at improving maternal health outcomes. Other fired employees had been working to implement a ban on surprise medical bills which was passed during Trump's first term.
" Donald Trump fired the people who make sure you and your parents get the healthcare you need," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). "The people who make sure medical devices are safe for you to use. The people who approve the lifesaving drugs you rely on. How does this help working people?"
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said the mass firings underscored the "multiple ways" in which the Trump administration's "incompetence and arson is about to hit Americans."
The mass firings came days after anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as Trump's secretary of health and human services after confirmation hearings in which he appeared to confuse Medicaid and Medicare and refused to affirm that vaccines do not cause autism—a debunked claim he has amplified in the past.
"On day one, the new HHS secretary is gutting the agencies that would be necessary to 'make America healthy again,'" Reshma Ramachandran, a Yale health professor who chairs an FDA task force, told Politico, referring to a slogan embraced by Kennedy.
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Senate Confirms 'Profoundly Unqualified' RFK Jr. to Lead Nation's Health Agencies
"No senator should have voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr.," said one consumer advocate.
Feb 13, 2025
The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to confirm vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead the nation's health policy, a move that one advocate said puts "our entire healthcare system and countless patient lives in jeopardy."
"This is a shameful day for the U.S. Senate, an institution that likes to laud itself for its careful deliberation and seriousness of purpose," said Robert Weissman, co-president of government watchdog Public Citizen. "No senator should have voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Every single senator knows he's not just profoundly unqualified to head the nation's health agency but a threat to public health in the nation."
Every Democratic senator voted against Kennedy's confirmation to lead President Donald Trump's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), while Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was the only Republican to oppose Kennedy. McConnell survived polio as a child and said Kennedy's "record of trafficking in dangerous conspiracy theories" about vaccines influenced his decision.
The confirmation followed Senate hearings in which Kennedy had nothing negative to say about the country's for-profit health insurance system, which has made insurers increasingly wealthy as patients' healthcare treatments are denied and delayed.
He insisted that Americans "would prefer to be on private insurance" and displayed a lack of knowledge about Medicaid and Medicare, appearing to confuse the two. He also denied being anti-vaccine while refusing to reject the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism, a failure that Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who is a physician, claimed to be troubled by—but Cassidy went ahead with his vote for Kennedy nonetheless.
"Senators who rubber stamp this dangerous nomination in fear of an angry tweet from President Trump cannot later feign concern and surprise when Kennedy's actions end up harming everyday Americans. They, too, will own the consequences."
"Any vote to confirm Kennedy to lead HHS is a vote to put our public health at risk, and senators know it," said Tony Carrk, executive director of government watchdog Accountable.US. "The war Kennedy is itching to wage against vaccines and scientific research will undoubtedly cost lives and could lead to the resurgence of diseases once thought dormant."
"Among the last people who should be overseeing our public health is Kennedy, with his non-existent health policy credentials, embrace of ludicrous conspiracies, and judgment so lacking that he potentially committed felony voter fraud despite courts warning him not to," Carrk added, referring to Accountable's accusation that Kennedy cast a ballot last year from an address that wasn't his. "Senators who rubber stamp this dangerous nomination in fear of an angry tweet from President Trump cannot later feign concern and surprise when Kennedy's actions end up harming everyday Americans. They, too, will own the consequences."
During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy angered officials in Samoa, where he spread anti-vaccine conspiracy theories just before 83 people died of measles in a 2019 outbreak. Samoa's director-general of health, Alec Ekeroma, accused Kennedy of "a total fabrication" when he told senators many of the people who died didn't have measles.
Before the Senate voted on Thursday, Ekeroma said Kennedy's confirmation to lead U.S. health agencies, which control funding for international health and vaccine initiatives as well as domestic policy, would be "a danger to us, a danger to everyone."
Weissman credited many Democratic senators for their "truly heroic efforts... to rally opposition against this dangerous nominee," and warned that "it will fall on the American people to confront his lies and policies and to defend basic public health principles and institutions."
"We should expect Robert F. Kennedy to continue spreading his conspiracies, anti-vaccine propaganda, and anti-science crusade," said Weissman. "We should expect him to deliver on his promises to sabotage our public health institutions. And we should expect him to enable and facilitate the effort to slash health care coverage for lower-income people, privatize Medicare, and undermine the subsidies and consumer protections on the Affordable Care Act exchanges."
Kennedy has claimed that he has "often disturbed the status quo by asking uncomfortable questions," but advocacy group Patients for Affordable Drugs noted that he provided little information in his confirmation hearings about how he would challenge Big Pharma by lowering drug prices and defending the Medicare negotiations introduced by former President Joe Biden.
"Secretary Kennedy has a critical opportunity—and responsibility—to build on existing measures to rein in Big Pharma's price-gouging and lower drug costs for patients," said Merith Basey, the group's executive director. "We are ready to work with him to ensure Medicare drug price negotiations continue, out-of-pocket costs are reduced, and competition in the marketplace is increased through reforms to end abusive pharmaceutical monopolies that harm patients."
"But make no mistake," added Basey. "Patients fought hard to secure the 2022 prescription drug law, and we will fiercely oppose any efforts to weaken it."
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