Mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services are continuing as the agency makes good on its intention, announced on March 27, 2025, to shrink its workforce by 20,000 people. Among workers dismissed in early April were several teams responsible for fulfilling requests for access to previously unreleased government data, information and records under a federal law known as the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA.
At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the offices that fulfill such requests have been eliminated, according to press reports. In 2024 alone, CDC received 1,800 requests for access to public records. At the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health, which together responded to almost 14,000 requests in 2024, multiple teams of FOIA staff were fired. FOIA offices at other HHS agencies were affected, too.
Most people may never file a public records request with a federal agency. But the fact that anyone is allowed by law to do so enables the public to hold government accountable and has catalyzed important government reforms. FOIA requests at federal health agencies have been particularly consequential. They have pushed companies to take unsafe drugs off the market, led to reforms that prevent unnecessary delays in communicating public health risks, and prompted policies that lower prices and improve access to taxpayer-funded health technologies.
