Montgomery County, Maryland, officials are alarmed by reports that a new executive order from President Donald Trump’s administration could target federal health agencies for employee cuts.
Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported thousands of employees at the Department of Health and Human Services could be slated for firing. According to the report, agencies, including the CDC and FDA, would be directed to cut a percentage of their employees. The same report said the White House denied that an executive order targeting HHS was on the way.
Despite the White House denial reported by the Wall Street Journal, the report itself sent a fresh wave of concern through Montgomery County, home to the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration’s headquarters.
Montgomery County Council member Andrew Friedson, whose district represents Bethesda, where the NIH campus is, told WTOP the work NIH is doing has real, life and death impact on county residents and people around the world.
“We literally have people in our community right now who go to NIH to get medical treatment, who are in research trials, who are getting their care,” he said.
Friedson added there are nearly 20,000 staff at the NIH campus, “who come from all over the world.” And, Friedson said the work at the facility has a significant impact on the local economy.
“We have 27 research centers at NIH and 30 locations around the county associated with NIH.”
The report that there could be cuts to federal staff at the government’s health-related agencies has Montgomery County officials reminding residents there are efforts to assist them.
“We’re trying to lift up and support them with as many resources as we can and we’re working very closely with our federal delegation,” Friedson said.
Freeze on data from CDC undergoes ‘thaw’
Leighton Ku, director of the Center for Health Policy Research at George Washington University, said the freeze on public statements and data from federal health agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been lifted — somewhat.
“We are seeing some information on websites,” said Ku, who’s also a professor of health policy at GW.
She was referring to sites that had been offline following an executive order from the Trump administration in January. The CDC website provides updated information on the spread of disease as well as reports on research.
The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which is used as a resource for tracking health trends in the U.S., is once again available online. But, Ku noted, some information that was expected to be included, such as updates on the spread of bird flu or H5N1, is missing.
Ku said the topic of bird flu is “of course, right now, a pressing issue.”
“This is not a good time to stop sharing information about that,” Ku said, noting their significance in helping state and local officials contain an outbreak. “So when that information is paused, it creates a hazard.”
Ku said the recent confusion over these actions is causing concern among students who plan to work in the field of public health.
“Students are scared,” Ku said. “They expect to be out in the job market in another year or so,” and most, Ku said, would traditionally be headed to careers in public heath in federal, state or local governments.
“I have students and friends who recently went to work for the federal government, hoping to do some things to help health and health care in the U.S., and they don’t know how much longer they’re going to have a job.”
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