Move To Alaska Or Resign

Some leaders of the many sprawling agencies and centers that make up the Department of Health and Human Services have been given a choice: Move out of DC or resign.

HHS began executing 10,000 layoffs as part of a massive restructuring of the department’s convoluted organization chart on Tuesday, according to several news reports. Thomas Nagy, deputy assistant secretary for human resources at HHS, began sending layoff notices in the early morning, immediately placing thousands of employees on administrative leave.

But some bureaucrats in leadership roles, including senior executive service members, were offered a deal: They could be retained in government service but would have to relocate to an Indian Health Service post.

For instance, Food and Drug Administration Center for Tobacco Products Director Brian King was offered a position at the Indian Health Service office, the Washington Post reported.

Some leaders of the National Institutes of Health’s 27 institutes and centers were likewise offered transfers to Indian Health Service offices like the one in Alaska and were given until Wednesday to respond, according to the Associated Press. Other Indian Health Service offices are found in cities hundreds of miles from Washington, DC, including Albuquerque, New Mexico; Bemidji, Minnesota; and Billings, Montana.

FDA Office of New Drugs Director Peter Stein was offered a reassignment to the patient affairs desk but declined, according to trade publication Endpoints News.

“I was offered a reassignment’ in ‘patient affairs’ (as they were required to do) or termination (after admin leave). I declined the offer (as ridiculous) so am on administrative leave,” Stein told the outlet.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on March 27 that the Department of Government Efficiency would be eliminating duplicative administrative functions across the department such as human resources and media relations. The restructuring would also involve enabling the agencies’ many disparate IT systems to communicate with one another and share depersonalized health data, he announced. 

A March 27 Office of Personnel Management memo revoked collective bargaining rights for several HHS divisions including the HHS Office of the Secretary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Anthony Fauci’s former division, the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

It also revoked bargaining rights from chief information officer roles. DOGE has been operating in CIO roles.