Sign up for mental health crisis line 988 Lifeline, Walnut Creek, California, December 20, 2024. The Trump administration has laid off more than 100 employees at the agency overseeing the number.
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The Trump administration has laid off more than 100 employees at the nation’s top mental health agency, NPR has learned.
Current and former employees of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) told NPR about the layoffs, which were part of a government-wide workforce reduction. The sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the agency, said the layoffs took place Friday evening, as the country’s government shutdown continued.
Employees were informed of a “reduction in force” shortly before 8 p.m. ET Friday, according to a source within the agency who was not authorized to publicly discuss the layoffs. According to the source, administration officials provided no explanation as to who lost their jobs:
“I think the general feeling today is shock – and I don’t understand why?” the source told NPR.
This source was aware of dozens of layoffs. Two former employees told NPR that the total number of SAMHSA employees who lost their jobs was about 125, although that number is a rough estimate. SAMHSA employed about 900 people at the start of this administration, but had already lost a third of that figure to layoffs in the spring. With this latest round of layoffs, that number has fallen to nearly half.
In a statement, the Department of Health and Human Services, which houses SAMHSA, confirmed the cuts.
“HHS employees in multiple divisions are receiving workforce reduction notices as a direct result of the Democratic-led government shutdown,” Andrew Nixon, the department’s communications director, wrote to NPR in an email Saturday evening.
SAMHSA is responsible for overseeing the new 988 suicide prevention helpline. It also provides billions in grants for mental health and substance abuse services. It was created in 1992 through bipartisan legislation signed by then-President George HW Bush. In 2024, its budget was about $7.5 billion, most of which went directly to states for programs targeting mental health and substance abuse issues.
SAMHSA funds “are the backbone of behavioral health in this country,” Rachel Winograd, a psychologist at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis, told NPR. earlier this year. “If these subsidies disappeared, we would be screwed.”
Although it plays a role that many consider essential in protecting the nation’s mental health, SAMHSA has not been viewed favorably by the current administration. President Trump had proposed cutting his budget as part of his Big Beautiful Bill. And earlier this year, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Congress he intended to consolidate his duties into a new program he calls the Healthy America Administration.
CDC Confused as Some Cuts Are Reversed
A sign marks the entrance to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Atlanta. Several key parts of the agency are losing employees.
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Brynn Anderson/AP
SAMHSA wasn’t the only agency to see staff laid off Friday night. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also appears to have suffered staff reductions, according to two employees who say they are affected by the layoffs. The two employees were not authorized to speak to the press while the layoffs are being finalized.
But budget cuts at the CDC appeared to be changing Saturday evening. In an apparent reversal, an employee’s firing was reversed, according to a letter seen by NPR. The letter, from Tom Nagy, director of human capital at the Department of Health and Human Services, said the employee’s reduction in force was “hereby revoked.”
The source said he was aware of other reversals at the CDC, but it was unclear how many employees received such letters.
Before these setbacks emerged, a CDC official who was fired told NPR that the agency had undergone sweeping staff reductions in offices responsible for disease surveillance, outbreak forecasting, chronic disease, immunization and respiratory disease, to name a few. “If you wanted to weaken America’s public health capacity without saying it openly, here’s how to do it: remove the people who connect the dots, steady the ship and keep the public informed,” the fired official told NPR.
The New York Times Also reported significant reductions at the public health agency, including two senior officials charged with overseeing the CDC’s measles response team.
Nixon’s statement from HHS did not directly address the CDC cuts or apparent reversals, but it indicated that further reductions could take place.
“HHS continues to close unnecessary and redundant entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda,” he said.
NPR’s Pien Huang and Jeff Brady contributed to this report.
