New Yorkers Experience Social Security Difficulties, Access To Quality Maternal Healthcare – Regardless Of Income – Is In Peril
Editor’s note: The Social Security Administration released a statement regarding office closures in which they did confirm that the White Plains facility is scheduled for permanent closure:
“From time to time, SSA must temporarily close a local field office for reasons such as weather, damage, or facilities issues, and it reopens when the issues are resolved. The agency has announced the permanent closure of one hearing office, in White Plains, NY.
According to Scarsdale 10583
SSA works closely with local congressional delegations before closing any office permanently. The agency also reassigns employees from an affected office to other locations to help communities access in-person services.”
County Executive Ken Jenkins and Congressman George Latimer offered to provide the department with available space so that the office could remain open and accessible to Westchester residents.
Gillibrand Presses Social Security Commissioner on Benefit Portal Malfunctions, Planned Firings of SSA Tech Workers
Lawmakers Send Letter Amidst Widespread Website Outages, Benefit Disruptions
Washington, D.C. – Senate Special Committee on Aging Ranking Member Kirsten Gillibrand wrote to Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek to demand that the Social Security Administration (SSA) address ongoing issues with the SSA website and reverse its reported plans to worsen the situation by firing up to 50 percent of employees from the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). Gillibrand was joined on the letter by Senate Banking Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren and Senate Finance Ranking Member Ron Wyden.
OCIO is responsible for maintaining the agency’s benefit claims processing systems, managing SSA.gov and SSA’s online benefits portal, and protecting Social Security recipients’ sensitive information. In February, the agency announced plans to reduce its workforce by over 12 percent. Hundreds more staff firings will happen at OCIO, which has been directed to cut half of its staff. These cuts are expected to worsen the ongoing issues with SSA’s website and online portals, including recipients being incorrectly labeled as “not receiving payments” and losing access to their account histories.
“It is unsurprising that weeks after you allowed DOGE to invade SSA, improperly access SSA data, and announce closures of Social Security offices, our constituents began having problems accessing their benefits…We are concerned that these recurring issues will impact the benefits of our constituents—many of whom rely on Social Security to pay rent or put food on the table,” wrote the lawmakers.
The cuts to the agency also expose SSA to system vulnerabilities, risking Americans’ data to hackers and foreign agents seeking to obtain private information. In addition to the dozens of senior SSA officials with centuries’ worth of experience who have resigned or retired, SSA’s entire cybersecurity leadership was also part of the exodus.
“Leaving Americans’ most sensitive information unguarded places immeasurable financial and economic harm on our most vulnerable…We ask that you immediately cease all OCIO firings and act swiftly to restore SSA system and website functionality to prevent any further disruption of…benefits,” concluded the lawmakers.
The senators asked Dudek to provide clarity on the impact of cuts to OCIO, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) role in the firings, and the acting commissioner’s plan to ensure technical knowledge of internal systems is not lost during workforce reductions.
The letter is the latest in a series of actions by Senator Gillibrand to protect Social Security from the Trump administration’s efforts to cut the program. Last week, Senator Gillibrand led a letter with Senator Ron Wyden calling on the Trump administration and DOGE to stop their attacks on Social Security, specifically calling out SSA’s staffing cuts, plans for indiscriminate closures of field offices around the nation, and attempts to limit phone services. Earlier this year, Gillibrand also demanded answers from the administration about its plans to close the Social Security office in White Plains, NY; slammed the Trump administration for its efforts to “buy out” SSA employees; and joined elected officials in New York to call on the administration to stop its repeated efforts to cut Social Security.
The full text of the letter can be found here.
Gillibrand DemandS Answers from HHS on Mass Firings AT HRSA that Imperil Primary Care and Maternal Health
New York Has Over 4,300 HRSA Health Care And Service Delivery Sites
So Far In FY2025, HRSA Has Awarded Over $256 Million In Funding To Health Programs And Facilities In New York
Firings Include Workers Who Oversee The National Maternal Mental Health Hotline, Which Gillibrand Helped Establish in 2022
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) led nine of their colleagues in sending a letter demanding answers from Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on the abrupt and unprecedented mass firing of Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) employees. HRSA is the primary federal agency tasked with improving access to health care for vulnerable populations, including uninsured and underinsured children and families and individuals living in rural communities.
New York has over 4,300 HRSA Health Care and Service Delivery Sites, which are facilities that are funded by or participate in HRSA programs. So far in FY2025, HRSA has awarded over $256 million in funding to these facilities and other health programs across New York State. These grants help fund health care facilities in rural areas; support programs that help patients living with HIV/AIDS, substance use disorder, maternal health complications, and cancer; and bolster health care workforce training programs across the state. Firing HRSA employees imperils their ability to provide care to New Yorkers and potentially puts this funding in jeopardy.
These firings also include layoffs of HRSA workers who run the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline, which provides free, 24/7 support to pregnant and postpartum women facing mental health challenges. Senator Gillibrand helped establish the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline in 2022. Since its launch, the hotline has received more than 54,000 calls and texts — a large part of which have been from postpartum moms reporting depression, anxiety, or feeling overwhelmed. Maternal mental health issues are the leading cause of pregnancy-related death in the United States. By firing the individuals who keep the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline operational, HHS is jeopardizing the lives of American moms.
“HRSA employees help struggling mothers, vulnerable children, uninsured patients, and individuals who live in rural areas access critical health care,” said Senator Gillibrand. “By indiscriminately firing these employees, the Trump administration is jeopardizing access to these vital services and threatening programs that help keep New Yorkers healthy. This is unacceptable, particularly at a time when our country is facing a health care workforce crisis. I am proud to work with my fellow senators to demand answers about these egregious firings at HHS, and I will not rest until our concerns are remedied.”
In addition to Sens. Gillibrand and Blunt Rochester, the letter was also signed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
The full letter can be found below:
Dear Secretary Kennedy:
We write concerning the abrupt and unprecedented mass firing of Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) employees who serve vulnerable populations including children, seniors, uninsured Americans, and rural communities. Reportedly, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) used spreadsheets to slash entire divisions without fully understanding the critical functions that many of the former employees performed. Therefore, we request detailed information about who was fired, their specific job functions, and the measures you will implement to ensure that at-risk Americans do not suffer due to your Reduction in Force (RIF).
HRSA is the primary agency tasked with improving access to health care for vulnerable populations, including the un- and underinsured, children, and families. On March 27, 2025, HHS announced a rushed and ill-conceived RIF in accordance with President Trump’s Executive Order 14210, “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative.” This is on top of the firing of seven percent of HRSA staff that occurred on February 14, 2025. These egregious staffing cuts have particularly decimated the Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), which not only runs counter to the administration’s goal of elevating preventative care and reducing the prevalence of chronic disease but comes at a time when the United States ranks last in maternal health outcomes relative to other high-income countries.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has reportedly fired 40 percent of the Bureau of Primary Health Care, which oversees the Health Center Program. This program effectively closes health care access gaps by providing high quality, affordable primary medical, dental, mental health care, and low-cost prescription drugs. Health centers provide care to over 32.5 million patients at 15,000 clinics across every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Basin. Health centers typically provide a wider array of lifesaving health care services for diverse populations impacted by barriers to care, serving one in five rural residents, one in three living in poverty, and over 400,000 veterans. Of the 32.5 million patients served by health centers, almost one-third are children, and 11 percent are seniors. A strong health center network is integral to increasing primary care access for people at every stage of life.
Through the Health Center Program, HRSA not only finances critical health care services, but safeguards patients from low-quality, inaccessible care. HRSA ensures that health centers comply with the highest health care standards to support improved clinical outcomes, improved access to services, and proper financial management. As a result of HHS’s actions, the ability of health centers to carry-out their critical mission of providing safe and accessible care is now in jeopardy, particularly at a time when the U.S. is facing a primary care workforce crisis.
Combined with the Health Center Program, HRSA administered health workforce programs through the Bureau of Health Workforce are our largest defense against nationwide workforce shortages that are driving preventable deaths. HRSA is critical to adequately staffing health professional shortage areas (HPSAs) with physicians, nurses, dentists, and mental health providers. As an increasing number of rural hospitals close- leaving many Americans without reasonable access to emergency, obstetric, primary, or specialty care- the country cannot afford to lose any investment in the health care workforce.
HHS has also terminated 20% of the employees at the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. This bureau oversees important programs that support children and pregnant women, such as the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Block Grant and the Healthy Start Program. These initiatives help reduce infant deaths, provide wrap-around services not covered by Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and reach families before, during, and after pregnancy. In 2023, the Title V MCH Services Block Grant helped provide services to an estimated 59 million people. This included 94% of all pregnant women, 98% of infants, and 59% of children nationwide, including children with special health care needs. Although your administration claims to support families, mothers, and children, you are actively undermining the health and wellbeing of these vulnerable groups.
At your direction, HHS has reportedly fired workers who oversee the Maternal Mental Health Hotline, which offers free and confidential support to the very large proportion of expectant and new mothers experiencing postpartum depression and anxiety, and mothers who simply need a listening ear during some of the most challenging moments of their lives. From October to December 2024, the hotline received 7,500 calls and texts— a majority of which were from postpartum parents, reporting depression, anxiety, or feeling overwhelmed. Maternal mental health issues are the leading cause of maternal death in the United States. These firings could disrupt an essential support pathway for saving the lives of American moms.
We remain concerned that these indiscriminate firings have destabilized HRSA and reduced the ability of the agency to provide critical, quality services to the vulnerable populations at the core of its mission. We request a full account of the status of HRSA’s workforce and the impact these firings will have on the American people. Please respond to the following questions and requests for information by no later than Monday, April 21st at 5 p.m.:
Please provide the total number of people terminated or put on administrative leave for all of HRSA, and specifically from each of the following offices as a result of EO 14210. Please provide a complete breakdown of position, 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.
Maternal and Child Health Bureau
Bureau of Primary Health Care
Bureau of Health Workforce
HIV/AIDS Bureau
Federal Office of Rural Health Policy
Provider Relief Bureau
Please provide the total number of people terminated or put on administrative leave, who accepted the deferred resignation program offer, or accepted the VERA/VSIP offer between January 18, 2025 and April 1, 2025 for all of HRSA and specifically from each of the following divisions. Please provide a complete breakdown of position, 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.
Maternal and Child Health Bureau
Bureau of Primary Health Care
Bureau of Health Workforce
HIV/AIDS Bureau
Federal Office of Rural Health Policy
Office of Women’s Health
How many people who were terminated or put on administrative leave were the primary or secondary contact for grantees?
What methods and frequency of communication are being used to inform grant recipients about their new points of contact? Have you confirmed that each grantee received notice of the change?
How many people involved with operations or compliance with the following grants or contracts were terminated or put on administrative leave?
Section 330 grants
Early childhood development grants
Cancer screenings grants
School-based health center grants
Maternal health hotline
Home visiting program
Title V Maternal Health Block Grant
Healthy Start
Have grantees been able to draw down funding at the same rate they were able to at this time last year? Please describe the cause of any delays in funding reimbursements experienced by grantees.
Have HRSA project officers or related personnel been instructed to withhold information from grant recipients regarding the continued availability of previously awarded support under EO 14210?
What instructions or communication have been provided to HRSA employees internally regarding program termination and staff reductions related to EO 14210?
What instructions have been given to remaining staff about how to absorb workloads of terminated employees?
What safeguards are in place to ensure that essential functions of HRSA are not harmed as a result of the RIF and proposed restructure of HHS??
How does terminating grants under EO 14210 align with HRSA’s mission to improve the health and well-being of vulnerable populations and all Americans?
Will you commit that, despite these terminations, HRSA will make all funding opportunity announcements for congressionally appropriated funding for Fiscal Year 2025 available immediately to allow communities the time necessary to develop robust proposals and that HRSA will award all congressionally appropriated funding by September 30th?
Banner Image: Baby feet. Image Credit – Klara Kulikova
