Human Needs Watch: Slashing Staff Means Less Help for People
The Trump Administration wants you to believe that massive cuts in staffing will have no effect on the services people need. The latest blockbuster announcement came from Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who will lay off 10,000 workers, doubling the total terminated, one-quarter of HHS’s workforce. It is too early to know how these cuts will affect people. But staff cuts at the Social Security Administration provide a hint. The 7,000 staffers cut, and 6 out of 10 regional offices closed, have led to a further worsening of services – call wait times worsening and website crashes. Errors have led to people going without benefits. Now, the Trump Administration is recklessly cutting funding being used to cope with the measles outbreak in Texas, substance use and mental health treatment, and public health preparedness around the country. And just as the SSA cuts are worsening services for people with disabilities, older adults and other family members, the extreme HHS cuts will hurt too. Splitting up the Administration for Community Living into three pieces will mean older adults and people with disabilities will get fewer and less streamlined services. Other cuts, detailed below, will undermine progress in substance use and mental health treatment and worker safety. But with all this slashing, what is HHS willing to spend money on? A new attempt to show a connection between autism and vaccines, to be conducted by David Geier, a discredited charlatan who, with his father, an MD who lost his medical license, carried out unsound research and dangerous (and expensive) medical treatments.
Tell Congress to stand against the $12 billion in public health cuts described below.
You can share these numbers on Facebook, Twitter (X), or re-share on Bluesky, and Threads.
104 minutes;
|
The average phone wait time to reach the Social Security Administration has doubled to 104 minutes, and the SSA website has crashed 4 times in the past month. Both these problems have occurred as staff have been cut and 6 out of 10 regional offices have been closed.
Click to Tweet (X), or re-share on Bluesky.
|
|
|
Anne’s storyAnne Bacon relies on $1,600/month that her brother Rick Clark receives from Social Security because he has dementia and requires care. In January, his check did not come. Ms. Bacon waited on the phone for 6 hours over two calls before she got through – when she did, the problem was cleared up in a few minutes. Click to Tweet (X), or re-share on Bluesky.
|
7,000;
|
Despite worsening service for the 73 million people relying on the Social Security Administration, the Trump Administration is proposing to cut the staff by 12%, or about 7,000 workers, as well as closing more than half the regional offices. Click to Tweet (X), or re-share on Bluesky.
|
8 days |
The Social Security Administration announced that applicants or those making changes to their benefits information would no longer be able to do so by phone – they would have to do it online or in person, despite office closures and long waits to make appointments, and that 61% of seniors don’t have broadband internet at home. It took 8 days of outrage for SSA to partly reverse itself: now people applying for disabilities and Medicare benefits will still be able to use the phone; the new rules will still stand for retirees, and those seeking survivors’ or spouse or child benefits.
Click to Tweet (X), or re-share on Bluesky.
|
$12 billion |
$12 billion in grants to states and localities for public health purposes was abruptly cancelled by HHS. While these funds were originally provided by Congress during the pandemic, some have been shifted to maintain public health infrastructure, and some were always intended by Congress to respond to the opioid epidemic.
Click to Tweet (X), or re-share on Bluesky.
|
400;
|
As of March 28, there were 400 measles cases confirmed by the Texas Department of State Health Services in the South Plains and Panhandle regions of the state. Forty-one have been hospitalized, and 1 child in the region died. Nevertheless, 3 grants being used to respond to the outbreak in Lubbock, Texas were among the $12 billion in cancelled funding.
Click to Tweet (X), or re-share on Bluesky.
|
100,000;
|
Although overdose deaths have declined a gratifying 24 percent in 2024, still, 100,000 Americans are dying from drug overdoses and suicide. But instead of pressing to build on what works and continue the progress, HHS has announced that it will cut the staff of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in half, from its current 900 employees.
Click to Tweet (X), or re-share on Bluesky.
|
-10,000;
|
The SAMHSA cuts are just part of an announced 10,000 staff reduction at HHS announced by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. This is on top of a previous 10,000 staff cuts, a reduction of 25% of the HHS workforce. In addition to concerns about public health cuts, staff and regional office reductions will make it harder to oversee child care and Head Start, and services for older adults and people with disabilities will be split up, making them less efficient.
|
-873;
|
Two-thirds of the staff of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) will be fired, a loss of 873 workers responsible for investigating worker health and safety issues, such as a fungal outbreak at a Michigan paper mill in 2023 that sickened 96 people and killed one. The Michigan company worked with NIOSH to remove the threat to workers’ health.
|
2 |
The two are Mark and David Geier, father and son. Mark was a physician; David has a B.A. They did studies purporting to show a connection between autism and a preservative in vaccines that contained mercury. These studies were judged to be flawed by the Institute of Medicine. The Geiers engaged in dangerous treatments to children with autism costing $5,000 a month, leading to a 2011 investigation by the Maryland Board of Physicians, which resulted in Mark losing his state medical license and David charged with practicing medicine without a license. David Geier has been hired by HHS to conduct a new study of autism and vaccines. |
Subscribe:
