NIH Allegedly Tells Workers To Ignore DOGE Emails About Their Productivity
Messages obtained by Politico said, “NIH ... will notify employees directly if any information related to work duties or performance is needed.” The messages also said the ability to travel or purchase work materials “will be restored to full capacity and use” on Thursday, Politico reported. In March, DOGE put a $1 spending limit on purchasing cards.
Politico:
Here's Another Sign Musk's Power Is Waning
The National Institutes of Health told employees Thursday it was rolling back directives from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to probe worker productivity and limit purchases and travel on company cards, according to messages obtained by POLITICO. It’s a possible sign that the agency’s recently confirmed director, Jay Bhattacharya, is willing to break with Musk and DOGE. (Nguyen, 4/10)
More on the budget cuts and funding freeze —
AP:
CDC Officials Plan For The Agency's Splintering, But Questions Remain
A top Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official told staff this week to start planning for the agency’s splintering. Several parts of CDC — mostly those devoted to health threats that aren’t infectious — are being spun off into the soon-to-be-created Administration for a Healthy America, the agency official told senior leaders in calls and meetings. (Stobbe, 4/10)
MedPage Today:
HHS Scraps Advisory Committee On Newborn Screening
As cuts sweep across federal health agencies, the Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children (ACHDNC) has been terminated. Notably, the ACHDNC, which sits under the Health Resources and Services Administration, is responsible for the Recommended Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP), a standardized list of dozens of conditions the HHS secretary recommends states screen for as part of their universal newborn screening programs. (Henderson, 4/10)
MedPage Today:
Nearly Half Of CDC Birth Defects And Disabilities Staff Cut
More than 40% of the 225 scientists and public health workers at the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) were put on administrative leave earlier this month as part of the Trump administration's reduction-in-force (RIF) initiative. A source told MedPage Today the cuts completely eliminated the staff in the Division of Blood Disorders and Public Health Genomics, which performed research on conditions such as hemophilia, sickle cell disease, and many other conditions impacting blood. (Clark, 4/10)
KFF Health News:
Trump HHS Eliminates Office That Sets Poverty Levels Tied To Benefits For 80 Million People
President Donald Trump’s firings at the Department of Health and Human Services included the entire office that sets federal poverty guidelines, which determine whether tens of millions of Americans are eligible for health programs such as Medicaid, food assistance, child care, and other services, former staff said. The small team, with technical data expertise, worked out of HHS’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, or ASPE. (Allen, 4/11)
KFF Health News:
RFK Jr.’s Purge Of FOIA Staff At FDA Spares People Working On Covid Vaccine Lawsuits
Mass firings at the FDA have decimated divisions tasked with releasing public records generated by the agency’s regulatory activities. ... But as the dust settled on the layoff melee, a notable exception emerged among the agency’s staff charged with responding to Freedom of Information Act requests. The cuts spared at least some workers who furnish documents in response to court orders in FOIA lawsuits involving the FDA division that regulates vaccines, which includes litigation brought by an ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s who represents anti-vaccine interests, according to four current or former agency employees. (Pradhan, 4/10)
KFF Health News:
KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: The Dismantling Of HHS
A week after the announcement of the reorganization and staff cuts ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the scope of the reductions is only starting to crystallize. Across such agencies as the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and FDA, entire divisions have been wiped out, and it is unclear who will be left to enforce hundreds of laws and regulate millions of products. Meanwhile, legislators in a growing number of states are introducing abortion bans that would punish women as well as abortion providers. (Rovner, 4/10)
The New York Times:
Attorneys General Sue Over Access To $1 Billion In Federal School Aid
Sixteen attorneys general and a Democratic governor sued the Trump administration on Thursday to restore access to over $1 billion in federal pandemic relief aid for schools that was recently halted, saying that the pullback could cause acute harm to students. The suit, led by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, and filed in Manhattan federal court, is one of the latest efforts by states to fight President Trump’s clawback of funding allocated to programs he does not want the government to support. The funding was part of a windfall of more than $190 billion that the U.S. Department of Education distributed to schools at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. (Meko and Closson, 4/10)
The War Horse:
Trump Budget Cuts To Defense Department Could Hurt Tech Innovation
Some of the U.S. military’s most defining technologies have nothing to do with missiles, tanks, guns, and other deadly weaponry. While important in war, these innovations — from duct tape and blood banks to GPS — ultimately play a far larger role on the home front, improving everyday lives. But now scientists are worried the Trump administration’s budget cuts threaten the long and historic funding growth for Department of Defense-supported breakthrough science, risking America’s global dominance in a tech-driven economy and undermining future payoffs. (Krieger, 4/10)
Also —
The New York Times:
Children Seeking Cholera Care Die After U.S. Cuts Aid, Charity Says
At least five children and three adults with cholera died as they went in search of treatment in South Sudan after aid cuts by the Trump administration shuttered local health clinics during the country’s worst cholera outbreak in decades, the international charity Save the Children reported this week. The victims, all from the country’s east, died on a grueling three-hour walk in scorching heat as they tried to reach the nearest remaining health facility, the agency said in a statement. (Sampson, 4/11)
CIDRAP:
WHO Director Says Public Health-Funding Independence Needed Amid Global Cuts
At a briefing today, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that almost 75% of WHO country offices have reported health service disruptions due to recent funding cuts, 25% reported health facility closures, and 25% reported increased out-of-pocket expenditures for populations. "They also report job losses for health and care workers, and disruptions to information systems, and the supply of medicines and health products," the WHO said. (Soucheray, 4/10)
