ICYMI: Haaland Condemns Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Ploy to Force Employees out of Health and Human Services Department

Statement comes as RFK plans visit to New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – As President Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans his trip to New Mexico, Deb Haaland, candidate for New Mexico governor, condemned his ploy to force employees out of the Health and Human Services Department. 

Last week, RFK announced that his department is cutting 10,000 full-time employees across health agencies, including staff that help navigate Medicaid coverage, monitor infectious diseases, and support critical medical research. The action also plans to move high-level officials to the Indian Health Service (IHS), even though their skill sets do not align with the needs of the agency.

An excerpt from the New York Times article is below:  

Ms. Haaland, who said she used the Indian Health Service for her health care as a younger woman, used another word to describe the reorganization, layoffs and transfers: disrespectful.

“It’s disrespectful of the I.H.S., it’s disrespectful of the people who have dedicated their careers to H.H.S. and to our country, fighting disease and regulating the things that need to be regulated,” Ms. Haaland said. “I just don’t understand what they think they’re doing.”

Haaland added this statement on RFK’s plans to visit New Mexico, “I won’t mince words, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is doing Trump and Musk’s bidding and it is causing chaos in New Mexico. The health care system in this country is broken, but firing employees who help New Mexicans get Medicaid and cutting funding and staff for cancer cure research is unacceptable.”