ICYMI: Senator Murray Statement on Trump Plans to Hollow Out HHS, Risking Americans’ Health and Safety
***VIDEO HERE***
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), held a press conference with Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Ed Markey (D-MA) slamming the Trump administration’s plans, announced today, to push out roughly 20,000 employees at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and hollow out the Department, which is responsible for protecting Americans’ health and delivering essential health and social services. Senator Murray released a statement responding immediately to the news earlier today.
Today’s announcement follows weeks of mass firings across HHS, creating chaos at the Department that has prevented it from executing its mission to protect people’s health, and an onslaught of detrimental policies that are halting lifesaving biomedical research and more. HHS announced that it plans to cut its workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 (a 25 percent reduction) through a combination of mass firings and buy-outs and remake HHS without thoughtful consideration and partnership with Congress. Among others, Trump, RFK Jr., and Musk plan to cut:
- 3,500 employees at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is charged with protecting Americans’ health by ensuring the safety and effectiveness of medicines, biologics (including vaccines), and medical devices–and regulating food safety, cosmetics, and tobacco products.
- 2,400 employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is charged with protecting the American people from health threats, including infectious diseases.
- 1,200 employees at NIH, the world’s premier medical research agency, which propels biomedical research that produces life-changing and, in many cases, lifesaving treatments and cures. These cuts come as the Trump administration has already systematically decimated ongoing work at NIH to advance new cures and treatments.
- 300 employees at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which has long been understaffed and is charged with helping to ensure over 100 million Americans have access to health insurance by overseeing Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered at today’s press conference, are below and HERE:
“We are here today to raise the alarm—because the Measles President, and Secretary Kennedy, are trying to turn the Department of Health, into the Department of Disease.
“Seriously, do you know what Trump and RFK Jr. are doing about the measles outbreak? They are ripping away funding Congress already provided to respond to the outbreaks—they’re stopping public health work in its tracks, even as this outbreak is threatening to spiral out of control.
“What are they doing about the opioid crisis, or maternal death rates, or bird flu for that matter? More cuts, and don’t forget—mass firings!
“What are they doing about vaccine hesitancy? Unsurprisingly, these anti-vaxxers are slashing vaccine research. And at the very same time, dedicating resources to launch vaccine conspiracy investigations and resurrect debunked science.
“And now, RFK Jr. announces he is pushing out some 20,000 workers at HHS? That is about as good for the public health as a cough in your face.
“Looking for new ways to make government more efficient and responsive is important. But Trump and RFK Jr. are doing anything but that!
“It does not take a genius to understand that pushing out 20,000 workers at a preeminent health agency, choking off funding for cancer research, and eliminating funding that prevents infectious diseases like measles will not make Americans healthier!
“It will just mean fewer health services for our communities, more opportunities for disease to spread, and longer waits for lifesaving treatments and cures.
“These cuts will not reduce the deficit in any way. Not at all! Instead, they threaten to incur massive costs down the road when we are caught flat-footed by the next health care crisis.
“Consider how much bipartisan spending Congress had to push out the door—why? Because Trump failed to get the COVID pandemic under control when it first hit.
“It costs something to prevent pandemics, and it costs a whole lot more when we fail to stop them. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure—but Trump and RFK Jr. are picking neither. They are picking chaos, plague, and pandemonium. That may as well be their official policy—because that is what is coming down the tracks if they don’t change course.
“And I will tell you right now, when our health agencies are unprepared for a deadly pandemic…
“When our hospitals are overwhelmed with sick kids because our local public health officials can’t track a worsening measles outbreak…
“When people start getting E. coli and we cannot figure out where it came from…
“Or whooping cough starts spreading—and we can’t do basic tracing to stop it…
“Or flu season sweeps through nursing homes like never before, because no one bothered to help people get vaccinated…
“Or a vaccine doesn’t even exist because HHS stopped funding seasonal flu vaccine development…
“Or our mental health centers close because federal grants were axed, and opioid deaths rise again, because prevention and treatment work was cut off…
“The American people won’t forget it was Trump and RFK Jr. who gutted essential services and put their lives at risk.
“Today may be a great day for snake oil, it may be a great day for conspiracies, it may be a great day for measles, but it is an incredibly alarming day for America.
“It’s an incredibly scary time for moms and dads who just want to keep their kids healthy, and just want to know there are competent people on the job keeping us safe from diseases.
“I have warned my colleagues from the start, this is not some political game. The work HHS does—or in this case, stops doing—has life and death consequences.
“Well, my colleagues better get used to hearing that warning, because for as long as Trump and RFK Jr. continue down this absolutely reckless path, I will echo that warning over, and over, and over again, because it is an important one.
“Given the stakes here, given the serious threats to our families—I don’t see how any of us can do anything less.
“We need to speak up about how dangerous this is—we are speaking up.
“We need to push back and fight for our families, and we need our families to stand up and fight with us.
“I know I will be. And I am proud to be here with two of my great colleagues who feel the same.”
###