Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are expressing concern to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that recent layoffs at U.S. health agencies are threatening the modernization of the organ transplant system.
The pair of lawmakers asked Kennedy in a Wednesday letter to disclose which staff at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), tasked with implementing improvements to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), were impacted by layoffs.
“We share the concern raised in a letter to you by the National Kidney Foundation that indiscriminate lay-offs of probationary employees initiated by HHS on Friday, February 14, 2025 has already resulted in the termination of key personnel hired to implement OPTN modernization initiatives,” Wyden and Sanders wrote to Kennedy.
With the rounds of terminations of workers from federal agencies, some who were brought on by the HRSA to help apply the 2023 “Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act,” were also reportedly affected.
“To allow those efforts to pause or cease altogether would calcify the issues within the organ transplant system which spurred this effort in the first place, and would amount to a failure to implement federal law,” the senators said.
Sanders, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member, and Wyden, the Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member, asked Kennedy how much of the staff charged with implementing improvements in the organ and transplantation system were let go or placed on leave since President Trump’s administration kicked off on Jan. 20.
The duo also asked the new HHS head how he intends to provide “adequate staffing and relevant experience and expertise to ensure continued improvements to the nation’s organ donation and transplantation system in keeping with the intent of the Securing the U.S. OPTN Act in 2023?”
Groups, including the National Kidney Foundation, have called for the workers to be brought back, saying the layoffs “stand in direct opposition to the goals of transplant system reform to improve efficiency, transparency, and the ability of government to respond to the needs of people who rely on the system.”
Wyden and Sanders asked the HHS leader to respond by March 5.
The Hill has reached out to HHS for comment.
