Public Health
RFK Jr. made promises in order to become Health Secretary. He’s broken many of them
Before being confirmed to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told U.S. senators he would not cut funding for vaccine research or change the nation’s official vaccine recommendations. He did both.
Public health workers are quitting over assignments to Guantánamo
The Trump administration's immigration policies have directed nearly 800 detainees to the U.S. military base in Cuba, but some officials from the U.S. Public Health Service tasked with overseeing their treatment are raising concerns.
Laid off HHS employees win judge approval to seek class action suit
Employees say they are entitled to financial compensation for the errors HHS made when trying to force them out.
Out of government, former USAID employees continue to offer their expertise
Former development workers founded Aid on the Hill to lobby members of Congress about international assistance.
Dueling HHS reversals whipsaw federal employees, grant recipients
Hundreds of laid off employees were recalled to work, but thousands of grant recipients had their funds rescinded with no notice.
Trump administration agrees to drop anti-DEI criteria for stalled health research grants
The Health and Human Services Department will allow the National Institutes of Health to resume considering current research grant applications while legal challenges over the Trump administration's new grant funding criteria play out in court.
HHS adds new conditions to telework for employees with disabilities
The Trump administration has sought to largely prevent federal employees from working remotely.
‘It’s more important than ever’: Federal employee awards program endures in time of civil service job cuts
Two winners of the Arthur S. Flemming award who spoke to "Government Executive" emphasized the importance of agency internships as well as their own work expanding and protecting access to clean water in the U.S.
CDC employees sort through chaotic ‘outbreak of firings’ followed by some reversals
The Trump administration laid off more than 1,000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees ostensibly due to the government shutdown, but officials have rescinded more than half of the reduction in force notices, according to the union.
RFK pressured CDC to dismiss career scientists until they backed his views, ousted director says
HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy is putting politics ahead of science and risking Americans’ health, top officials pushed out and dismissed at CDC tell Congress.
CDC employees given 2 weeks to return to headquarters following recent shooting
Agency officials said that security has been heightened at the CDC’s Atlanta campus.
Bipartisan senators call for CDC oversight following firing of agency’s director
The removal of Director Susan Monarez was followed by the resignations of four other agency officials who criticized proposed funding cuts and politicization of public health.
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3 senior leaders quit after CDC director is ousted
After officials said Susan Monarez was no longer director, its chief medical officer and two high-ranking disease experts resigned, citing budget cuts and politicization.
As measles exploded, officials in Texas looked to CDC scientists. Under Trump, no one answered.
A measles outbreak struck earlier this year, just as changes made by the incoming Trump administration affected the Centers for Disease Control's response, agency personnel said.
HHS the latest to cancel union contracts and implement Trump’s order
The decision seemingly contradicts the Office of Personnel Management’s guidance not to terminate collective bargaining agreements while litigation challenging the edict progresses, though it was recently amended only to prohibit NTEU contract terminations.
Trump administration seeks permission to finalize mass layoffs at HHS
Many of the department's RIFs have been held up by a July court order.
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‘It’s just too much’: CDC employees have faced layoffs, vaccine misinformation and now — violence
A shooter who recently attacked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s headquarters was upset about the COVID-19 vaccine, police said.
Trump illegally froze 1,800 NIH medical research grants, Congress’ watchdog says
The Government Accountability Office said the cancellation of $8 billion in NIH grants was a violation of the Impoundment Control Act and the Constitution.
Deep staff cuts at a little-known federal agency pose trouble for droves of local health programs
The Health Resources and Services Administration has lost approximately a quarter of its staff between February and June, challenging its ability to provide grant funding to public health programs across the nation.
Federal judge deems Trump administration’s termination of NIH grants illegal
In a ruling issued Monday, the judge called the government’s directives “arbitrary and capricious” and ordered funding for some of the NIH grants, including many profiled by ProPublica in recent months, to be restored.
CDC has shed one-quarter of staff even as it recalls some laid off workers
Agency tells court that states are not suffering "irreparable harm" from cuts even as agency leaders lament "operational disruptions" and "loss of expertise and capacity."
