Deep employees cuts at a little-known federal company pose hassle for droves of native well being packages – Day by day Information

By Sarah Jane Tribble, KFF Well being Information, Henry Larweh, KFF Well being Information

Slightly-known federal company that sends greater than $12 billion yearly to assist neighborhood well being facilities, habit remedy providers, and workforce initiatives for America’s neediest individuals has been hobbled by the Trump administration’s staffing purges.

The cuts are “just a bit astonishing,” mentioned Carole Johnson, who beforehand led the Well being Assets and Companies Administration. She left the company in January with the administration change and has described the sweeping employees cuts as a “huge menace” to the company’s means to distribute billions of {dollars} in grants to hospitals, clinics, nonprofits, and different organizations nationwide.

Since February, a couple of quarter of employees at HRSA — together with analysts, auditors, scientists, grant managers, and nursing consultants — have left, in response to a KFF Well being Information evaluation.

The company, headquartered in a nondescript gray-and-glass workplace constructing tucked into aspect streets in Rockville, Maryland, employed about 2,700 staffers in early 2025. Workers labored behind the scenes to handle and monitor 1000’s of tasks nationwide that fund major well being suppliers, HIV/AIDS remedy and prevention, maternal and little one care packages, rural hospitals, and workforce coaching.

On the bottom, HRSA’s grants have helped create telehealth initiatives for moms in rural New Mexico, funded workforce coaching for Indigenous nurses in South Dakota, and supported Wholesome Begin packages for expectant moms and infants in locations like rural Georgia.

Ryan Alcorn, a co-founder and the chief government of GrantExec, an organization that helps organizations match and apply for funding, mentioned each American advantages from the packages HRSA’s funding helps: “When the security internet fails, hospitals turn into overwhelmed, unpaid prices rise, and premiums go up for everybody.”

A number of former HRSA leaders, who’ve been in contact with workers, confirmed the magnitude of the cuts estimated by KFF Well being Information. Johnson mentioned she believes the precise variety of employees misplaced is bigger.

Greater than 700 employees had been fired or selected to go away from February via the tip of June. The evaluation is predicated on knowledge from the HHS worker listing, which can not embody employees who opted out of being listed, and will not be an actual rely of the employee roster, which is in flux.

Johnson, who’s now a senior fellow on the Century Basis, and several other different former workers interviewed by KFF Well being Information mentioned they’re involved that particular packages might be eradicated, but additionally that lowered staffing might have an effect on ongoing program oversight. The company’s workforce ethos, Johnson mentioned, is one wherein “if there have been two individuals left at HRSA, they’d work across the clock to attempt to get the cash out.”