Page Reader AI | Entire CDC FOIA Office Fired as Health Agency Moves to Centralize Structure

Entire CDC FOIA Office Fired as Health Agency Moves to Centralize Structure | The Epoch Times

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Key Events

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s entire Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) office was terminated as part of a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) restructuring initiative under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This action, along with layoffs across other HHS divisions, is intended to streamline operations and centralize the FOIA process.

Reasoning Behind the Changes

HHS officials cited a lack of communication and siloed operations among the various FOIA offices as the rationale for the restructuring. The goal is to consolidate FOIA responsibilities into a single, centralized office.

Impact and Reactions

The terminations have raised concerns among critics, who argue that the cuts to public health jobs could weaken national defenses against disease outbreaks and other public health threats. While the HHS maintains the changes are a win for taxpayers and improve health outcomes, the union representing government employees expressed significant apprehension regarding the implications.

Additional Information

The article also mentions that FOIA requests will still be processed and highlights that the terminations are part of a larger plan to cut approximately 20,000 workers from HHS.

FOIA requests previously handled by the now-disbanded CDC office will be processed.
The reorganization plan includes consolidating divisions and reducing the number of regional offices.
The terminations have begun, with significant concerns raised about public health implications by critics.

A health official said all the Freedom of Information Act offices were previously operating in an isolated fashion.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s entire Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) office was fired as part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reorganization, a health official confirmed on April 2.

Some FOIA employees working in other HHS divisions, including the National Institutes of Health, were also among those being laid off by HHS.

The terminations are part of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s restructuring plan, aimed at streamlining operations, an HHS official told The Epoch Times.

The various FOIA offices did not communicate with each other, nor did they report to their parent agency, HHS, the official said. Instead, the offices “all operated in their own silo.”

The plan is to take the work the offices conducted and centralize it into one FOIA office. The plan is still being finalized.

The official said that all the FOIA requests that have been submitted will be processed.

FOIA is a federal law that enables journalists and members of the public to ask for and receive information from government agencies, including internal emails and documents. Responses regularly shed light on important topics. CDC records produced through FOIA in recent years have shown that agency officials found evidence that COVID-19 vaccines caused deaths, revealed millions of cases of post-vaccination COVID-19 early in the pandemic, and shed light on why officials changed the definition of the term vaccine.

A CDC employee told The Epoch Times via the agency’s FOIA portal that the agency’s entire FOIA office has been placed on administrative leave.

Emails sent to CDC FOIA employees were returned with automated messages stating that they are on administrative leave and unable to respond.

Meredith Schlaifer, deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of the Commissioner’s Division of Freedom of Information, told The Epoch Times in an email that her office’s nine people are still employed, but that a number of other administration FOIA staffers were fired through a reduction-in-force, or mass termination.

Spokespersons for the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health declined to comment.

Kennedy announced on March 27 that HHS would be cutting some 10,000 workers, on top of another 10,000 that have recently been fired or left the department. Kennedy also detailed a reorganization that includes consolidating divisions and reducing the number of regional offices.

Terminations started in the first week of April.

Kennedy said on April 1 on social media platform X that the process is difficult and “our hearts go out to those who have lost their jobs,” but that Americans have been getting sicker each year despite trillions spent by the HHS.

“This overhaul is about realigning HHS with its core mission: to stop the chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again,” he wrote. “It’s a win-win for taxpayers, and for every American we serve.”

Critics say the terminations will cause harm.

“Cutting 10,000 critical public health jobs puts every American at risk—weakening our defenses against disease outbreaks, unsafe medications, and contaminated food,” Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees union, said in an emailed statement.