April 15,2025

Wyden, Sanders Demand Answers from Trump Administration Over Mass Layoffs that Threaten the Wellbeing of Children and Families

In Letter to HHS Secretary Kennedy, Senate Finance Ranking Member and HELP Ranking Member Express Concern that Mass Firings Hurt Kids and are Setting Stage for Congressional Republicans to Cut Essential Human Service Programs

Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., today demanded answers from the Trump administration over its mass layoffs at the Administration for Children & Families (ACF).

ACF provides critical services and support to low and middle-income children and families, such as child care assistance, energy assistance, programs that help prevent child abuse and neglect, and more. Despite the essential nature of this work, the Trump administration laid off more than 500 civil servants across ACF programs alongside tens of thousands of other HHS employees. ACF also closed five of its ten regional offices in Chicago, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, and Boston, which served 22 states that are home to almost 165 million Americans.

“We write regarding reports of sweeping firings at the Administration for Children & Families (ACF) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),” wrote Wyden and Sanders. “You purport to be a champion for children, and even posted on X ‘[w]hen people ask what motivates me, my answer is always the same…our children.’ But, just 47 days after your confirmation as Secretary of HHS, you oversaw mass firings at ACF that make every child in America less safe than they were the day before.” 

In their letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kennedy, Wyden and Sanders expressed deep concerns that gutting this workforce also sets the stage for Republicans to follow through on their steep cuts to critical social service programs that keep children and families safe.

“The gutting of the Office of Family Assistance and the Office of Community Services raises acute concerns as Republicans threaten to eliminate essential human service programs for children, seniors, and families to fund tax breaks for billionaires and wealthy corporations,” Wyden and Sanders wrote. “We are deeply concerned you are intentionally teeing-up Congressional Republicans’ steep cuts to TANF and SSBG by eliminating the career public servants who make sure states and territories effectively and efficiently administer this funding dedicated to our most vulnerable children, families, and seniors.”

The full letter can be found here.

Their questions for HHS can be found here:

  1. How many ACF employees have been fired since January 20, 2025? Please provide a complete breakdown by office and position. For each category of employee at each office, provide information on GS level and veteran status, and clearly state the justification for termination. This accounting should include employees who have since been reinstated or placed on administrative leave, noting that change in status.

 

  1. Which officials at HHS were involved in these staffing reduction decisions and what planning, if any, was undertaken prior to these reductions? Please describe the events that unfolded and name each office that was involved in the decision. Further, please name the official(s) who approved the staffing reductions as well as specifically indicate if any of the below individuals, or direct reports to these individuals, were involved in the decision-making. Name any such direct reports. 

    1. Elon Musk, Special Government Employee, DOGE.

    2. Amy Gleason, Acting Administrator, DOGE.

    3. Andrew Gradison, Acting Assistant Secretary, ACF.

  1. Please provide a detailed plan for how the Administration plans to staff and oversee ACF going forward, and how you will ensure continued execution of its critical mission.

    1. Please describe how ACF plans to monitor the impact that these dismissals have on its programs and services moving forward.

  2. Please describe how ACF will oversee states and territories in administering SSBG without the Division of Social Services. 

  3. Please describe how the Children’s Bureau will oversee the CCWIS moving forward, including how it will ensure that it retains the in-house expertise to conduct this technical work. 

  4. The Administration recently canceled five bipartisan TANF pilots designed to help the anti-poverty program focus on better promoting meaningful employment opportunities. How will ACF re-bid those pilots, as announced, with these new workforce reductions?

  5. Please describe how the Administration made decisions to close half of the ACF regional offices, including the information and planning used to decide which and how many of these offices would be closed.

    1. Who at the HHS Office of Child Care and Office of Head Start will be monitoring and supporting states and Head Start grantees across the regions without offices?

    2. Who will help Head Start programs navigate federal policy guidance and provide training and technical assistance?

    3. Who will be conducting visits and on-the-ground oversight of child health and safety and program quality for CCDF funding and Head Start programs?

    4. How will the Administration ensure timely communication and notices of awards for upcoming Head Start grant cycles, including the May 1 deadline, given the reduced staffing capacity and expertise?

  1. Please provide specific staffing information on who is administering LIHEAP and describe how ACF will oversee states and territories in administering this program in a way that will ensure no family loses access to critical utility assistance.

  2. Congress just passed the bipartisan reauthorization of Title IV-B of the Social Security Act. The law requires HHS to reduce the administrative burden experienced by state child welfare agencies by a minimum of 15 percent. How will reduced ACF staff impact states’ ability to meet this statutory requirement, including with respect to ACF’s ability to provide timely technical assistance and support states?  

  3. The Family First Prevention Services Act was a major bipartisan priority signed into law by Donald Trump in 2018 which aims to reduce entry into foster care, help children remain at home, and minimize reliance on unnecessary congregate care placement. Its implementation relies on the expertise of ACF staff. How will firings impact the implementation of critical FFPSA provisions, including the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse and those related to Qualified Residential Treatment Programs?

  4. As ACL is subsumed into ACF and other HHS agencies, how will HHS guarantee that children with disabilities and their families continue to receive access to coordinated services that help them live independently in their own communities, as they received via ACL? Please provide a detailed plan outlining the number of employees who remain at ACF, or who will be transferred from ACL to ACF, who will be able to provide the expertise needed to support children with disabilities. 

  5. Please describe how budget reconciliation priorities factored into ACF dismissal decisions, including any coordination with Congressional Republicans that took place related to which ACF offices to target.

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