Veterinarians among those cut in extensive layoffs at HHS

Mass firings at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on April 1 have resulted in significant personnel cuts to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and National Institutes of Health.

Veterinary impact

The layoffs are part of a dramatic restructuring as part of President Donald Trump’s executive order, “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative."

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pledged to fire 10,000 people across the agencies under HHS. When combined with HHS’ other efforts, including early retirement and voluntary buyouts, 82,000 full-time employees will be reduced to 62,000, according to a March 27 HHS press release. The department claims it will save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year.

The cuts began the first week of April, with many employees learning they were being placed on administrative leave or offered reassignment, while thousands of other employees were terminated, including senior leadership.

Among those let go were more than 140 leaders and staff members at the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), many of whom are veterinarians, according to news reports and the AVMA.

Additional veterinarians feeling the impacts work across a variety of areas within the FDA—including the Human Foods Program, the Office of Inspections and Investigations, the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, and the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research—as were those working across the CDC and NIH.

Dr. Sandra Faeh, AVMA president, said in a statement that the AVMA supports efforts to thoughtfully improve government efficiency, “however, as the work is done to achieve that, essential functions must be preserved.”

She continued, “The offices impacted by this recent reduction-in-force work on issues such as drug availability, antimicrobial resistance, animal and human food safety, disease control (including, but not limited to, avian influenza), international trade, and much more. The work done by our veterinarian colleagues in these offices is critical to the safe and effective practice of veterinary medicine, and–ultimately–the protection of animal and public health.”

Restructuring details

According to the HHS release, the restructuring plan will consolidate 28 divisions into 15, reduce regional offices from 10 to five, and centralize human resources, information technology, procurement, external affairs, and policy.

The FDA will ultimately lose approximately 3,500 full-time employees, according to an HHS fact sheet, “with a focus on streamlining operations and centralizing administrative functions. This reduction will not affect drug, medical device, or food reviewers, nor will it impact inspectors.” The CDC will decrease its workforce by approximately 2,400 employees and the NIH by about 1,200 employees.

All personnel decisions were made after consulting with HHS’s 13 operating divisions leaders, according to an HHS memo obtained by AVMA News. The memo cited examples of “wasteful administration” such as 1,400 external affairs officers, 100 communications officers, and dozens of information technology and human resources departments.

No additional cuts are currently planned, HHS information states, but added that the department “will continue to look for further ways to streamline its operations and agencies.”

Public response

On April 2, more than 100 public health leaders—including former U.S. Secretaries of Health and Human Services, a former U.S. Surgeon General, former CDC directors, former governors, and retired state health directors and commissioners of health, as well as corporate and nonprofit leaders—issued an open letter urging Congress “to take immediate action to protect and strengthen the American public health infrastructure.”

The letter, organized by For Our Health, an initiative of the American Public Health Association, was released in response to the reduction in force (RIF) as well as HHS announcing it will restructure CDC functions and transfer some core responsibilities to a newly created “Administration for a Healthy America”—a move public health leaders warn will compromise the nation’s ability to prevent and respond to health emergencies.

“The U.S. faces multiple escalating public health threats, including an avian influenza outbreak affecting livestock. This outbreak has severe economic repercussions, driving up egg prices and threatening farmers’ livelihoods. CDC staff, with their expertise and dedication, work tirelessly alongside the (U.S. Department of Agriculture) and state health departments to contain this crisis. Yet, Secretary Kennedy recklessly suggested to ‘let the animals develop natural immunity’ which would be catastrophic. His refusal to listen to leading veterinarians and animal health researchers delays necessary interventions and puts workers who handle these animals at serious risk,” the letter states.

Advocacy efforts

Meanwhile, AVMA continues advocating on behalf of federal veterinarians, who occupy incredibly varied positions at agencies ranging from the USDA to the Department of Defense.

It’s unclear exactly how many veterinarians have thus far been affected by the RIF led by the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency. 

The National Association of Federal Veterinarians estimates up to 3,200 veterinarians are part of the federal workforce, excluding over 1,000 in the military. The largest proportion works for two USDA departments: the Food Safety and Inspection Service and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which employ about 650 and 600 veterinarians, respectively.

The initial wave of firings in February focused on the roughly 200,000 “probationary” employees across the federal government, who had fewer job protections because they were relatively new to their positions, according to news reports.

Some of those affected included federal workers responding to the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak, ensuring the safety of pet food and medicine, engaging in mitigation planning for pandemics, and caring for animals used in agency research, among other critical duties.

The government since rescinded some of these firings, but the terminations—combined with a federal hiring freeze and buyout offers—are depleting the ranks of federal programs that are already short on employees and resources.

“The situation is fluid right now, and we want to work with Congress and the administration to ensure that key positions and personnel are restored and that the many critical and essential functions of these federal offices, which protect the health of both humans and animals, are maintained,” Dr. Faeh said.

A version of this story appears in the May 2025 print issue of JAVMA