WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) this week held a two-day spotlight forum, entitled “Trump’s Destruction of HHS: Mass Firings, Reorganization, and the Human Harm Caused.” The forum examined the human harm caused by the Trump Administration’s sweeping reorganization and mass terminations at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Watch the forums on Senator Welch’s YouTube.
Tuesday’s forum featured testimony from Dr. Robert Califf, the former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); Dr. Meg Sullivan, the former Acting Secretary for Administration for Children and Families (ACF); Ms. Chiquita Brooks La-Sure, the former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); and Ms. Carole Johnson, the former Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
Wednesday’s forum featured Dr. Anne Schuchat, the former Principal Deputy Director, Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Ms. Trina Dutta, the former Chief of Staff, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); Dr. Sean Bruna, the former Senior Advisor, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ); Professor Alison Barkoff, the former Administrator for Administration for Community Living (ACL); and Dr. Jeremy Berg – former Director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at NIH.
Watch the livestreams of the hearings below, and hear directly from the health experts:
“The multiple rounds of firings that have occurred have had a significant impact on both the physical ability of the FDA to do its work and the morale of the organization…It’s hard for me to imagine a more effective approach to demoralizing a workforce. The bottom line is that the firings have left the FDA with not enough people to do the work, and we lost so many of the most experienced people that making the most complex judgements needed in the day-to-day work of the agency and multiple-regulated industries,” said Dr. Robert Califf, Former Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Agency (FDA). “These issues are leading to, first: many of aspects of the industry looking to go overseas to develop their products. And perhaps, most importantly—China is now emboldened to overtake the United States in the infrastructure needed for this vital part of our public health and the economy,”
“Gutting the staff that administer ACF programs will make children, families, and communities suffer. In addition, when the programs are cut or disappear, everyone feels the impact and longer wait lists, fewer providers, and local organizations stretched to the breaking point,” said Dr. Meg Sullivan, Former Acting Assistant Secretary of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). “ACF programs, including those not mentioned just now, support the services communities rely on in every corner of America. They can be the difference for your child care center staying open, your local diaper bank having supplies, meal delivery for older adults, or for a child remaining safely at home. We should be investing in our children and families, but firing child well-being experts at ACF and proposing senseless cuts will unquestionably cause them harm.”
“The current proposals drown both Medicaid and ACA Marketplace in excessive red tape that will hurt everyone—including seniors, mothers, children, those with disabilities, and it will cause more uncertainty, more churn, and more people delaying lifesaving treatments,” said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “The proposals in the House Reconciliation bill that target both Medicaid and the Marketplace seek to undermine the very progress that the Affordable Care Act sought to achieve in making our health care system more affordable and accessible to everyone regardless of their income or health care needs. The bill aims to increase friction in the health care system for enrollees and does so at the same time that many of the staff, who could help reduce this friction, were fired. These changes not only hurt the millions of people that rely on those programs, but our providers and, in fact, our entire health care system.”
“Rather than strengthen this essential safety net, the Administration is prioritizing dismantling it. The Administration has already slashed health center program staffing, put the widely acclaimed pediatrician who oversaw maternal and child health programs on leave, fired the transplant surgeon recruited to help reform the nation’s transplant system, and eliminated entire offices that are essential to any organization — like HR and communications,” said Carole Johnson, Former Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). “If the current Administration follows through on its plans, HRSA will cease to exist and the families and communities in your states that most depend on this help will lose it just as the majority looks to make it harder for them to get and keep Medicaid coverage. The safety net may never have been more fragile than it is at this moment.”
“The cuts are dangerous for the American public. You, your families and communities are less safe. If you are pregnant, your risk of dying after you deliver will be higher because the Perinatal Quality Collaborative was cut and the pregnancy risk factor assessment monitoring system, or PRAMS was also eliminated. If you have a toddler, they’ll have a higher chance of losing IQ points to lead poisoning because CDC’s lead poisoning program was canceled. Last year, more than 500 children were affected by lead contamination of cinnamon flavored applesauce and CDC led the response. Next year there will be no one to call,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, Former Principal Deputy Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Proposed cuts of more than $1 billion threaten to stymie progress just as we’re seeing real, measurable results. Such cuts to SAMHSA’s discretionary grant portfolio will impact on-the-ground programs that serve millions of Americans. SAMHSA’s discretionary grants serve as a powerful innovation engine, which have allowed the government to scale up interventions like coordinated specialty care for first episode psychosis, peer support services, and crisis care. Cuts to programs like those that support pregnant and postpartum women with substance use disorder, that foster mental health awareness training, and that promote the wellness of young children, would force states to use their block grant dollars to pick up the slack. And at a time when looming Medicaid cuts will put even more pressure on those block grants, communities will be left in a precarious position as they address their mental health and substance use disorder needs,” said Trina Dutta, Former Chief of Staff of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
“Dismantling AHRQ will have nationwide consequences. It weakens evidence-based care. It hinders health care from addressing emerging threats and dismantles grant programs that support current research and the training of future researchers. It eliminates mandatory funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund, requiring an Affordable Care Act amendment, and strips vital tools from state and local health systems working to improve care. In short, the two applied science strands that facilitate medical progress and aid in implementing scientific innovations in our healthcare systems would be lost,” said Dr. Sean Bruna, Former Senior Advisor to the director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
“Dismantling the Administration for Community Living and cutting its programs will devastate the tens of millions of older adults and disabled people who rely on them to stay in their own homes and communities,” said Alison Barkoff, a George Washington University professor who led ACL during the Biden Administration. “Cuts to ACL’s programs will force people into institutions like nursing homes, taking away their independence and increasing costs to programs like Medicaid and Medicare.”
“I can summarize the consequences of these terminations in one word: delay…Termination of grants management specialists may make it even harder and will affect all aspects of the NIH mission. The most time-sensitive component of NIH are clinical trials…A delay of a month or two might not seem like a lot, but many of the patients in these trials don’t have many months left. These treatments represent a chance for a strong, favorable outcome for individual patients and an opportunity for researchers to learn how to make these treatments work better in the future. I honestly cannot imagine how frustrating it must be for these patients and their loved ones,” said Dr. Jeremy Berg, Former Director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at NIH. “The number of research subjects and patients at the clinical center is down apparently by 30% or more. This prevents patients from receiving care, slows research, and is a colossal waste of resources for the world’s greatest research hospital. That this is all being done in the name of ‘efficiency’ would make George Orwell blush.”
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