California sues RFK for HHS layoffs and SF office closure

The suit alleges that on April 1, when HHS employees received termination notices, many of the department’s functions ceased.

“There was no one to answer the phone, factories went into shutdown mode, experiments were abandoned, trainings were cancelled, site visits were postponed, application portals were closed, laboratories stopped testing for infectious diseases such as hepatitis, and partnerships were immediately suspended,” the suit states.

HHS had lost roughly 20,000 of its 82,000 employees as of January; the suit claims this has contributed to damages across states, including fewer processed complaints involving retailers selling tobacco illegally and a halt to funding for early childhood programs.

One of the five regional offices the HHS identified for closure is in the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in downtown San Francisco, where there were around 318 federal employees as of April.

Other states joining the lawsuit are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as Washington, D.C.