E&C Democrats Investigate RFK, Jr.’s Illegal Shutdown Firings Amid Health Care Crisis Republicans Created & Refuse to Address

Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Health Subcommittee Ranking Member Diana DeGette (D-CO), and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY) wrote to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. today voicing serious concerns with the illegal mass firings at HHS during the government shutdown. The Democratic Committee leaders also requested an explanation for the numerous errors and failure to follow the required process in the agency’s Reduction in Force (RIF) efforts.

"This illegal termination effort during a government shutdown has been chaotic and incompetent. A court filing on the evening of Friday, October 10 stated that 1,100 to 1,200 HHS employees would be terminated. The following day, however, Committee staff were notified that HHS had committed errors in sending RIF notices to employees. A Tuesday, October 14 court filing further explained that due to 'discrepancies and processing errors,' nearly 1,800 employees received a RIF notice when the final number of RIF notices that HHS intended to send was 982. An October 20 court filing reduced that number yet again to 954 with the opaque explanation that 'HHS has rescinded additional RIF notices…'" Pallone, DeGette, and Clarke wrote in their letter to Kennedy. "This process is consistent with the sloppiness of your first RIF efforts."

The Democratic Committee Leaders also noted the precarious timing of the firings, as the nation reels from the Republican health care crisis: coverage losses, measles outbreaks, restricting access to vaccines, and widespread staffing cuts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Republicans created this health care crisis and shut down the government rather than work with Democrats to fix it.  

"These RIF efforts appear to be part of your ongoing attempts to destroy essential public health programs that keep Americans safe and healthy, particularly at CDC. You are cutting CDC even further in the middle of the largest measles outbreak since the disease was eliminated in 2000 with quarantines in multiple states," the Democratic Committee Leaders continued.

The Committee leaders demanded information and answers to a series of questions, including:

• Any guidance, memoranda, or communications providing legal analysis or justification regarding HHS’s ability to conduct a RIF during a government shutdown;
• Written intention of HHS abiding by all future employment-related court orders;
• A description of the “data discrepancies and processing errors” that resulted in 1,760 HHS employees receiving a RIF notice on October 10 instead of the intended 982 employees; and
• The process by which HHS determined what roles would be eliminated.

In addition, Committee Democrats again requested responses to their April 1 and May 28 letters to the Secretary: "We have serious concerns that you are willfully breaking the law and decimating public health, which leaves Americans totally exposed to future outbreaks and pandemics."

Full text of the letter is available HERE.

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