Worries grow over risks to Americans as Trump cuts health, safety agencies

More than 150 people in FDA 's Office of Inspections and Investigations were laid off last week .

FDA 's top food safety official resigned in February citing “indiscriminate” staffing cuts to his office.

The cuts tee up “the next infant formula crisis waiting to happen,” says one current FDA official.

The White House says the cuts are intended to make agencies more “nimble and strategic”.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday said some laid-off personnel at the nation’s health agencies would be “reinstalled” and that “ 20 percent ” of the DOGE -driven cuts were inevitably going to be mistakes” But Kennedy has not announced plans to rehire laid off workers.

FEMA last week ended a hazard-mitigation program, known as Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities , that was started by the first Trump administration.

NOAA employees say they are worried the Trump administration’s push for firings, resignations and retirements has left many local weather forecasting offices understaffed across the country.

In the central region, about a quarter of the forecasting offices now lack a senior meteorologist to lead their team, employees said.