The entire staff of HHS’s Region 9 Office, which oversees Arizona, was abruptly laid off this week as part of the department’s mass cuts nationwide
WASHINGTON – Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), alongside 37 Senate Democrats, is demanding answers from the Trump Administration about the mass layoffs of federal health workers and the devastating impact these cuts will have on Arizona families.
In a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kennedy, the senators urged the administration to reverse course before these reckless firings cause lasting harm to the country’s public health.
“Your actions continue to show a reckless disregard for the health and well-being of American families, most significantly for underserved communities. You claim this ‘reduction in force’ will ‘make America healthy again.’ But firings of this scale will do the exact opposite,” the senators wrote. “If you do not reverse course, you will do irreparable damage to our nation’s human services, health care delivery, public health, and scientific infrastructure – making Americans sicker and leaving our communities ill-prepared for future threats.”
Mass cuts to HHS have already had an immediate impact on Arizona. The entire staff at the HHS Region 9 office, which oversees Arizona, was recently let go without notice. This has thrown critical programs in chaos and uncertainty, including Head Start, which was also interrupted by Trump’s chaotic freeze on all federal funding earlier this year.
“The decision to reduce staffing was implemented without a clear transition plan, leaving multiple states within Region 9 without a designated point of contact to continue oversight, technical assistance, and program support. This disruption undermines the continuity and effectiveness of Head Start services, jeopardizing the quality and stability of early childhood education for thousands of children and families,” said the Arizona Head Start Association. “AZHSA urges federal leadership to prioritize transparency, communication, and stability in decisions that impact the delivery of vital services to communities in need.”
The layoffs at HHS Region 9 are part of a broader effort by the HHS to dismantle key agencies and slash jobs at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), and more. Many workers only found out they were fired when they arrived at work on Monday and were turned away at the door.
The senators warn that these reckless layoffs will:
- Harm seniors, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable communities;
- Harm children, including by making it harder to protect children from abuse and neglect;
- Make child care less safe and less affordable;
- Worsen the backlogs in the development of new treatments and cures;
- Weaken access to primary medical care;
- Leave Arizona unprepared to manage ongoing public health concerns and emerging threats;
- Worsen the opioid epidemic;
- Decrease access to life-saving mental health services; and
- Cut off access to in-person assistance by closing regional offices across the country, including in Arizona
The letter was led by Senators Mark Warner (D-VA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Read the full letter HERE.