Firings at federal health agencies decimate offices that release public records

Public access to government records that document the handling of illnesses, faulty products, and safety lapses at health facilities will slow after mass firings at the federal Department of Health and Human Services swept out staff members responsible for releasing records, according to transparency advocates and health experts.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s layoffs across health agencies in recent days eliminated workers who handled Freedom of Information Act requests at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and cut FOIA staff at the FDA and the National Institutes of Health, said six current and former federal workers KFF Health News agreed not to name because they fear retaliation and are not authorized to speak to the press.

FOIA is a transparency law that guarantees public access to the inner workings of federal agencies by requiring officials to release government documents. The 1966 law is a crucial tool for law firms, advocates, businesses, journalists, and the general public. It has been used to hold officials accountable and uncover harm, corruption, and political meddling in policymaking.

At HHS, FOIA requests are used to obtain a litany of records, including detailed CDC information about large outbreaks of food and waterborne illnesses, and FDA inspection reports of facilities that make food, drugs, medical devices, and dental products.

Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said the FOIA cuts would have "an enormous effect on patient safety" and are "antithetical" to Kennedy's promise to bring "radical transparency" to federal health agencies.

"It is simply not possible to honorably make that claim while decimating the staff," Lurie said. "Can we rely particularly on this government to be forthcoming about the number of cases in an outbreak? You need FOIA to be able to take the lid off of that."

HHS spokesperson Vianca Rodriguez Feliciano declined to respond on the record to questions about the department's plans for processing FOIA requests from the CDC, FDA, and NIH.

Gunica Singh, staff attorney for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said the FOIA layoffs were almost certain to further slow the release of public records, which often took months or years before the cuts.

"What we need to be doing is the opposite of what's happening now: hiring more staff," she said.

Many records are disclosed only in response to FOIA requests. For example, during the covid-19 pandemic, FOIA requests forced the FDA to release internal documents showing little evidence to support using hydroxychloroquine to treat covid, even though President Donald Trump heavily promoted the drug.

Scientific researchers have used the law to obtain clinical trial data to assess whether drugs are safe and effective, or to get more details about adverse events associated with drugs and medical devices. Lurie said obtaining more information about adverse events is particularly important in serving as a bulwark against cherry-picking data or manipulating what's available online to spread disinformation about the safety of vaccines and other products.

All these efforts will be slowed by the purge of FOIA offices, said Michael Morisy, CEO of MuckRock, a nonprofit group that helps journalists and others file public records requests. Scientists will have less to study. Attorneys and advocates will struggle to build cases and fight for causes. Simply, Americans will know less about their government and the industries it regulates and be less able to hold them both to account.

"I think one thing we've learned is that if there's less watchdogging over an issue, that issue gets worse," Morisy said. "I really do think that we are going to see companies become more lax with food safety, companies become more lax with consumer safety."

Thousands of pending FOIA requests are likely to be affected.

During fiscal 2024 — from October 2023 through September 2024 — the CDC, FDA, and NIH received more than 15,000 FOIA requests and provided at least some records in response to more than 10,000, according to HHS' most recent annual FOIA report.

Those requests were submitted by university researchers, state governments, laboratories, pharmaceutical companies, animal rights groups, law firms, and news organizations, including KFF Health News. Records sought by law firms appear related to investigations of illnesses, outbreaks, drugs, medical devices, and products used by countless Americans.

Morisy and Singh said filling requests is more complicated than many realize, often requiring an in-depth understanding of complex agencies. That's why it's important to house FOIA staff within each agency rather than consolidate them.

"We are sacking the entire staff and sacking all of that knowledge," Morisy said. "And I just don't see how these things continue to function."

David Rousseau, the publisher of KFF Health News, serves on the board of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

We'd like to speak with current and former personnel from the Department of Health and Human Services or its component agencies who believe the public should understand the impact of what's happening within the federal health bureaucracy. Please message KFF Health News on Signal at (415) 519-8778 or get in touch here.