Washington — Senate Democrats will hold hearings next week on the dramatic overhaul at the Department of Health and Human Services amid widespread terminations that have drawn questions about the functioning of key health programs.
The hearings, led by Democratic Sens. Peter Welch of Vermont and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, will center on the impact of the restructuring, featuring testimony from former officials from agencies under the HHS umbrella, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the National Institute of Health, among others.
A sweeping restructuring ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has played out in recent weeks, with department-wide layoffs at health agencies. HHS announced in March that it aimed to reduce its employees by nearly 25% with layoffs, buyouts and early retirement offers.
The restructuring came after thousands of probationary workers at health agencies received termination letters in February amid a government-wide effort by the Elon Musk-helmed Department of Government Efficiency to cut recently hired or promoted employees, before the firings were put on pause amid court intervention. And earlier this month, HHS moved for a second time to fire probationary employees, in what an HHS spokesperson said was the “the final step of the process.”
In an interview with CBS News, Welch called the HHS overhaul an “assault on the structures that provide scientific research, that are engaged in disease prevention, that are engaged in the delivery of health.”
“You’ve got a Health and Human Service Secretary in Robert Kennedy who is on a destructive rampage, tearing apart institutional structures that have been in place to help us with the science and research and delivery of healthcare in this country,” Welch added.
The widespread restructuring has raised concerns about some key health agency functions, like monitoring food and drug safety and preparing for the next pandemic, with cuts hitting the FDA and CDC, while also impacting departments that handle mental health, federal poverty guidelines and other services. Some of the layoff notices were ultimately revoked.
Still, Kennedy told CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook last month that things were going according to plan, noting that the agency had grown in the past four years, and “these reductions just bring it down to pre-COVID levels.”
“What this reorganization is meant to do is to eliminate the redundancies, to streamline the agency, and to reorient it so that we are trying to make America healthy,” Kennedy said.
The HHS secretary returned Wednesday to Capitol Hill, appearing before congressional committees for the first time since his arduous confirmation process.
Last month, the leaders of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee requested testimony about Kennedy’s “reorganization” of HHS in a letter, citing his commitment to come before the committee on a quarterly basis — a commitment that GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a medical doctor, outlined following his decision to deliver Kennedy the key support he needed to become secretary, despite consternation over his record on vaccines.
Cassidy said in his opening statement at Wednesday’s hearing, which focused on the White House’s proposed budget, that “people fear change even when it’s from worse to better. But without a clearly defined plan or objective, people assume the worst.”
“Americans need direct reassurance from the administration and from you, Mr. Secretary, that these reforms will make their lives easier, not harder,” Cassidy said.
Democrats derided Kennedy’s nomination during the confirmation process, and Welch, who sits on the committee that ultimately advanced Kennedy’s nomination said at the time that “it’s hard, in many ways, to see how we could do worse.”
Three months later, Welch said Kennedy has “exceeded my low expectations.”
