Letters reversing the layoffs arrived in the inboxes of some NIOSH staff a day ahead of House and Senate hearings May 14 with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. where he faced questions about the layoffs.
As of mid-May, so many efforts are underway to restore NIOSH funding and staffing (at least eight listed here) that you need a scorecard to keep up. Here is an overview.
From 2021 through 2023, a NIOSH lab achieved 1,776 respirator approval decisions. Work at the lab and the Respirator Approval Program link on the site has now been shut down.
Twenty attorneys general sued the Trump administration on Monday, May 5, 2025, for its mass firings and the dismantling of agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The US Labor Department would receive $8.6 billion in 2026 under President Donald Trump’s budget blueprint, a nearly 35% cut from its current funding level, according to Bloomberg News.
The reorganization follows weeks of speculation about staff cuts and EPA Administrator Zeldin announcing the cancellation of billions of dollars of EPA grants.
An initial round of layoffs on April 1 cut about two-thirds of the agency workforce — including NIOSH Director Dr. John Howard after a 22-year tenure — on the orders of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
