Veterinarians impacted by layoffs at Health and Human Services

The mass firing that took place at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on April 1, 2025, resulted in a striking number of personnel cuts from the CDC, FDA, and NIH. The layoffs were set into motion as 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,” according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.¹

In a HHS press release sent out on March 27, 2025, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged he would cut 10,000 workers across the agencies under HHS, which would reduce 82,000 full-time employees to 62,000, when combined with other efforts including early retirement and voluntary buyouts.² According to the department, this will allegedly save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year.

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The cuts began during the first week of April with many being placed on administrative leave or offered reassessment, but thousands of others were terminated, including senior leadership. Among those cuts were over 140 leaders and staff members at the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, many being veterinarians.¹ Other veterinarians are beginning to feel this impact across other areas within the FDA, including the 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, along with those working with CDC and the NIH.

The president of the AVMA, Sandra Faeh, DVM, said in an AVMA statement that while the AVMA supports efforts to thoughtfully improve government efficiency, “as the work is done to achieve that, essential functions must be preserved.”¹

“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,” Faeh continued.¹

The restructuring and public response

In the HHS release, the restructuring plan is to consolidate 28 divisions into 15, reduce regional officers from 10 to 5, and centralize human resources, external affairs, information technology, policy, and procurement. This restructuring means the FDA will ultimately lose 3500 full-time employees, the CDC will decrease by 2400, and the NIH by 1200 employees.

These cuts were made after consulting with HHS’s 13 operating division leaders, according to a memo that the AVMA news obtained, which also cited examples of “wasteful administration” including 1400 external affairs officers, 100 communications officers, and dozens of information technology and human resources departments. Currently, there are no additional cuts planned, but the department will continue to look for further ways to streamline its operations and agencies.

Over 100 public health leaders including former US Secretaries of HHS, a former US Surgeon General, former CDC directors, former governors, retired state health directors and commissioners of health as well as corporate and nonprofit leaders wrote an open letter to Congress on April 2, 2025.³ The letter urged Congress to "take immediate action to protect and strengthen the American public health infrastructure.”

Organized by For Our Health, an initiative of the American Public Health Association, the letter was released in response to the reduction in force as well as the HHS announcing the restructuring of CDC functions and transferring some core responsibilities to a newly created Administration for a Healthy American. According to public health leaders, this move will compromise the nation’s ability to prevent and respond to health emergencies.

“The US 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 US 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,” according to the letter.³

The National Association of Federal Veterinarians estimates that up to 3200 veterinarians are part of the federal workforce, excluding 1000 veterinarians in the military, with the largest proportion working for 2 USDA departments, the Food and Safety Inspection Service and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services. Both of these groups employ about 650 and 600 veterinarians.

Among those affected by these layoffs include federal workers responding to the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak, engaging in mitigation planning for pandemics, caring for animals involved in agency research, and more.

“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,” Faeh concluded.¹

The AVMA shared that it will continue to advocate on behalf of federal veterinarians. It is currently unclear how many veterinarians have been affected by the mass layoffs.

References

1. Larkin M. Veterinarians among those cut in extensive layoffs at HHS. American Veterinary Medical Association. Published April 4, 2025. Accessed April 7, 2025. https://www.avma.org/news/veterinarians-among-those-cut-extensive-layoffs-hhs
2. HHS Announces Transformation to Make America Healthy Again. News release. US Department of Health and Human Services. March 27, 2025. Accessed April 7, 2025. https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/hhs-restructuring-doge.html
3. For Our Health’ Strongly Opposes HHS Cuts to Public Health Funding and Workforce Reductions and Calls for Congressional Oversight. April 4, 2025. Accessed April 7, 2025. https://www.forourhealth.org/news/for-our-health-stands-in-solidarity-with-public-health-workers-amid-harmful-cuts-and-layoffs