HHS surmounts obstacles set by Democrat-appointed judges, gives thousands of bureaucrats the boot

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services revealed in late March that it was downsizing its workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 employees as part of a broader overhaul intended to maximize efficiency, save taxpayers money, and help make America healthy again.

The agency sent notices of reduction in force to 10,000 employees. Another 10,000 workers apparently left voluntarily, accepting early retirement and buyout offers.

The threat of a proper housecleaning enraged Democrats and, of course, pink-slip recipients, who filed legal challenges. Democrat-appointed U.S. district judges proved more than willing to hold up the terminations, prompting the government to appeal and the Supreme Court to weigh in.

'Despite spending $1.9 trillion in annual costs, Americans are getting sicker every year.'

Taking full advantage of the path cleared by the high court, HHS finalized layoffs for thousands of employees on Monday.

An HHS spokesperson told Blaze News that "all employees who were originally notified, who aren't covered under the N.Y. v. Kennedy case, and those who haven't had their notice rescinded have been terminated."

How it started

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the layoffs in late March, noting that the restructuring would:

• save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year through the reduction in the workforce of about 10,000 full-time workers;
• streamline the functions of the department by consolidating 28 divisions into 15 divisions, reducing regional offices from 10 to five, and centralizing core functions;
• "implement the new HHS priority of ending America’s epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins"; and
• make Americans' experience with the HHS more responsive and efficient.

The health secretary noted on X that while the moment was difficult, "the reality is clear: what we've been doing isn't working."

"Despite spending $1.9 trillion in annual costs, Americans are getting sicker every year. In the past four years alone, the agency’s budget has grown by 38% — yet outcomes continue to decline," wrote Kennedy. "We must shift course."

Straight out of the gate, senior officials at the National Institutes of Health including Christine Grady, the wife of former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, got the boot along with Fauci allies Clifford Lane, deputy director for clinical research and special projects at NIAID, and Emily Erbelding, director of the NIAID division of microbiology and infectious diseases.

Establishmentarians clutched their pearls over these and other firings at HHS.

Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, bemoaned the layoffs, telling Nature, "This will go down as one of the darkest days in modern scientific history in my 50 years in the business.

"It's a bloodbath," one U.S. Food and Drug Administration employee told CNN.

Former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf took his doomsaying onto LinkedIn, noting, "The FDA as we've known it is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed. I believe that history will see this a huge mistake."

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Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Two major legal actions were launched in recent weeks with the apparent aim of writing the terminations off as unlawful and undermining the MAGA agenda: a class-action lawsuit filed in the District of Columbia on behalf of ex-HHS employees and a lawsuit filed on May 5 by Democratic attorneys general from 19 states and the District of Columbia, seeking to block the RIF.

Both cases were assigned Democrat-appointed judges, the class-action lawsuit to an Obama judge and the blue states' lawsuit to U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose, a Biden appointee.

'Thank you for your service to the American people.'

As is the apparent custom of Democrat-appointed federal judges, Judge DuBose obliged the plaintiffs, blocking the Trump administration from finalizing the layoffs and requiring HHS to file a status report by July 11.

DuBose suggested that they had "sufficiently shown irreparable harm" and that the "Executive Branch does not have the authority to order, organize, or implement wholesale changes to the structure and function of the agencies created by Congress."

How it's going

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed federal agencies to continue with their mass layoffs, staying a Clinton judge's order that had blocked the administration from proceeding without congressional approval.

On Monday, the Supreme Court sent another message on theme, letting the Trump administration execute mass layoffs at the Department of Education.

RELATED: Career feds act like they’re the ones running the country

Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

Citing the high court's July 8 decision, HHS informed thousands of employees on Monday that their time at the agency was over as of close of business.

“You are hereby notified that you are officially separated from HHS at the close of business on July 14, 2025," said a copy of the notice obtained by the Washington Post. "Thank you for your service to the American people."

Not all of the intended 10,000 ousters are taking place this week.

Some jobs are temporarily protected owing to DuBose's ruling in New York v. Kennedy, which reportedly shields employees at the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention; the National Center for Environmental Health; the Division of Reproductive Health; the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; the Office on Smoking and Health; the National Center for Birth Defects and Development Disabilities; the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products; the Office of Head Start; and the Division of Data and Technical Analysis.

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