Inside the purge of HHS
Support our nonprofit journalism March 13, 2025 The clock is ticking for federal health employees. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—a highly consequential umbrella agency that employees more than 80,000 people across the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and several other offices—has given staff a deadline of tomorrow to express interest in taking a buyout of up to $25,000, pre-tax, as part of the broader purge of federal workers. One of my latest stories , based on interviews with several HHS employees as well as internal emails I obtained, reports on the quandary facing federal health workers. They could leave jobs that they love to escape the chaos President Trump, Elon Musk, and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have unleashed, or stay and try to fight for public health. Meanwhile, officials seem hellbent on undermining them and imposing ...