STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Some other news now. The Trump administration has begun a round of layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services. Thousands of employees were fired just yesterday. As NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin reports, the process has been chaotic.
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. explained last week he wants to dramatically overhaul the department he oversees and cut the workforce by a total of 20,000 employees - almost 25% of staff. He said the focus would be on streamlining administrative work and promised it would not affect things like FDA inspections or Medicare services, but there weren't a lot of details about the reduction in force or RIFs. Then early Tuesday morning...
JENNIFER HOENIG: I woke up to multiple text messages that they received a RIF notice. So I went online and saw my email.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: That's Jennifer Hoenig, who works for SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. She's a statistician who oversees a national survey on drug use and health. Some HHS employees missed those emails and texts, so they headed into work. At several federal buildings, there were lines of workers snaking around the block. And many found out they had been fired when they tried to badge into the building and their badge didn't work. Here's Hoenig again.
HOENIG: Someone on my team specifically - he was able to badge in like normal. And then he went upstairs and got the RIF notice.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: She was shocked that her whole team was cut. She says the survey she runs has been happening for decades. It's required by Congress and provides key information about substance use so that state and local stakeholders can make policy decisions. They had already gathered the data.
HOENIG: So we don't know what will happen because there's no statisticians left in our center.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Hoenig's team was just one of many to get cut. Others include disability services, tobacco regulation, rare disease research, HIV prevention, fertility research, occupational safety, even help for heating bills for elderly and disabled people. Very high-ranking NIH directors were given an offer to transfer to the Indian Health Service and given the option of several remote posts.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PHIL HUANG: I mean, I'll just say it. I think it's a way to try to get people to quit.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: That's Dr. Phil Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services in Texas at a press briefing on how the cuts will affect local public health. On social media, Kennedy said it was a difficult moment. But, he wrote, HHS was spending too much money and Americans weren't getting healthier so they had to shift course.
Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF TOMMY GUERRERO'S "FALLING AWAKE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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