Signal for the 988 Lifeline psychological well being emergency hotline, Walnut Creek, California, December 20, 2024. The Trump administration has laid off greater than 100 staff on the company chargeable for overseeing the quantity.
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Smith Assortment/Gado through Getty Pictures
The Trump administration has laid off greater than 100 staff on the nation’s fundamental psychological well being company, NPR has discovered.
Present and former staff on the Substance Abuse and Psychological Well being Companies Administration (SAMHSA) informed NPR in regards to the layoffs, which had been a part of a government-wide discount in pressure. The sources, who weren’t licensed to talk publicly in regards to the company, mentioned the layoffs got here late Friday, because the nation’s authorities shutdown dragged on.
Workers had been notified of a “Discount in Power” shortly earlier than 8 p.m. ET on Friday, based on a supply throughout the company who was not licensed to debate the layoffs publicly. In accordance with the supply, administration officers provided no rationale for who misplaced their jobs:
“I believe the final feeling at this time is shock — and never understanding why?” the supply informed NPR.
That supply was conscious of dozens of firings. Two former staff informed NPR that the whole variety of staff at SAMHSA who misplaced their jobs was round 125, although that quantity was a tough estimate. SAMHSA had employed round 900 folks firstly of this administration, however had already misplaced a 3rd of that quantity to layoffs within the spring. With this newest spherical of firings, that quantity is down to just about half.
In an announcement, the Division of Well being and Human Companies, which homes SAMHSA, confirmed the cuts.
“HHS staff throughout a number of divisions are receiving reduction-in-force notices as a direct consequence of the Democrat-led authorities shutdown,” Andrew Nixon, the division’s director of communications, wrote to NPR in an e mail late Saturday.
SAMHSA is chargeable for overseeing the brand new 988 suicide prevention hotline. It additionally provides out billions in grants for psychological well being and dependancy providers. It was created in 1992 by bipartisan laws signed by then-President George H.W. Bush. In 2024 its funds was about $7.5 billion, most of which went on to states for packages geared toward psychological well being points and dependancy.
SAMHSA funds “are the spine of behavioral well being on this nation,” Rachel Winograd, a psychologist on the College of Missouri-Saint Louis, informed NPR earlier this 12 months. “If these grants had been to go away, we might be screwed.”
Regardless of having what many see as a necessary function in defending the nation’s psychological well being, SAMHSA has not been seen favorably by the present administration. President Trump had proposed slashing its funds as a part of his Large Stunning Invoice. And earlier this 12 months, Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. informed Congress that he supposed to fold its duties into a brand new program he calls the Administration for a Wholesome America.
CDC in confusion as some cuts reversed
An indication marks the doorway to the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention headquarters Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Atlanta. A number of key elements of the company are shedding staff.
Brynn Anderson/AP
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Brynn Anderson/AP
SAMHSA was not the one company to see workers laid off on Friday night. The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention additionally seems to have suffered cuts to staffing, based on two staff who say they had been affected by the firings. Each staff weren’t licensed to talk to the press whereas the layoffs are being finalized.
However the cuts at CDC appeared to be in flux late Saturday. In an obvious reversal, one worker had their firing undone based on a letter seen by NPR. The letter, from Tom Nagy, the Chief Human Capital Officer on the division of Well being and Human Companies mentioned the worker’s Discount in Power was “hereby revoked.”
The supply mentioned they had been conscious of different reversals on the CDC, however it was unclear what number of staff acquired such letters.
Earlier than the reversals went out, one CDC official who was laid off informed NPR that the company had been the topic of sweeping cuts to workers at workplaces chargeable for illness surveillance, outbreak forecasting, power illnesses, and immunization and respiratory illnesses, to call however a number of. “In case you wished to weaken America’s public well being capability with out saying it outright, that is the way you’d do it — take away the individuals who join the dots, regular the ship, and hold the general public knowledgeable,” the official who was laid off informed NPR.
The New York Occasions additionally reported in depth cuts on the public well being company, together with two senior officers chargeable for overseeing the CDC’s measles response workforce.
The assertion from HHS’s Nixon didn’t immediately tackle the CDC cuts or the obvious reversals, however it indicated extra cuts may come.
“HHS continues to shut wasteful and duplicative entities, together with these which might be at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Wholesome Once more agenda,” it mentioned.
NPR’s Pien Huang and Jeff Brady contributed to this report.
