This statement can be attributed to Cemeré James, interim executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)

Washington, D.C., March 28, 2025 – CLASP decries the cuts announced yesterday to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). These reductions will affect mental health, disabled people, rural communities, vaccines for children, and community health workers who address inequities for people across the lifespan, among others.

HHS plays a fundamental role in addressing the well-being of the nation’s 340 million people. Everyone benefits from HHS’s work to fight diseases, promote public health, and provide essential human services. But people with low incomes—especially children and families—have a particular stake in the agency’s work. That’s why CLASP is concerned that HHS is slashing another 10,000 jobs—on top of the 10,000 positions eliminated earlier—as part of Elon Musk’s DOGE project, which has recklessly cut grants and contracts and terminated staff since its inception.

• The proposal eliminates the Administration for Community Living (ACL) by reorganizing it into three different HHS agencies. ACL provides critical programs and services to advance independent living and inclusion for people with disabilities and older adults. This represents just one of many attacks by DOGE on the disability community, which has included detrimental cuts to the Department of Education and the Social Security Administration, among others.
• The HHS reorganization will further undermine the agency’s capacity to process grants, monitor implementation, and provide technical assistance for many programs, including child care and Head Start. The reduction in HHS regional offices from 10 to 5 further challenges this.
• Dismantling the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) will have substantial ripple effects on people’s behavioral health. For example, SAMHSA facilitates the treatment of over 1.5 million people in substance use facilities annually and supports programs that families and communities depend on for mental health support, suicide prevention, and more. Earlier this year, DOGE cut 10 percent of the almost 900 employees at SAMHSA, impacting the provision of critical suicide hotline (988) grants to states, among other key services. SAMHSA also provides significant block grants in community mental health and substance use nationwide. Cutting staff and reorganizing HRSA funding and technical assistance will exacerbate critical gaps in the behavioral health workforce.

Our country is undergoing unprecedented upheaval in programs critical to people who are forced to live on the margins of society during an unpredictable economy poised to get even worse. Drastic cuts like these will only make their lives more challenging. CLASP is committed to joining our partners in resisting these cuts and advocating for alternative approaches that don’t fund tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations by making drastic reductions that harm people with low incomes.