Dive Brief:
- The HHS plans to furlough 32,460 employees — roughly 41% of its total workforce — if the government shuts down, an event that looks like a near-certainty amid deadlocked funding discussions on Capitol Hill.
- The furloughs, which the HHS laid out in a contingency plan, would represent another hit to the massive federal healthcare department, which has already lost thousands of staffers this year amid Trump administration workforce cuts.
- A shutdown would hit HHS agencies differently depending on their function and how they’re funded. For example, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which conducts health services research, would lose 90% of its staff, while no staff would be furloughed at the Indian Health Service, which received advance funding for 2026.
Dive Insight:
Barring some last-minute miracle, Washington is careening towards a shutdown at midnight tonight, the beginning of the 2026 fiscal year. The funding impasse is in part due to clashing views on health policy, with Democrats refusing to support a short-term spending plan without a deal to extend more generous subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans, and Republicans preferring a shutdown instead.
The government closing down has large implications for federal departments, including the HHS, which will have to slow many operations and stop others altogether.
The HHS plans to stop oversight of research grants and contracts and will no longer perform data collection and analysis in event of a shutdown, according to its contingency plan. The department will no longer be able to respond to public requests for information, including under the Freedom of Information Act, while rulemaking, including from the CMS, will likely be delayed due to limited staff.
“[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] communication to the American public about health-related information will be hampered, CMS will be unable to provide oversight to major contractors, and [the National Institutes of Health] will not have the ability to admit new patients to the Clinical Center, except for whom it is medically necessary,” the HHS wrote in the contingency plan.
A government shutdown will hit HHS agencies with varying degrees of severity
Federal healthcare programs, including Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance program, are mandatory and would be unaffected by a shutdown. The federal Affordable Care Act exchanges will also be business as usual for the immediate future, given their operations are funded by user fees from insurers.
The FDA will continue activities that support food and drug reviews; the NIH will continue research and clinical activities that are necessary to protect human life or government property; and the CDC will continue monitoring for disease outbreaks, the HHS said.
If the shutdown lasts a while, the HHS may have to make further cuts, according to the plan.
The upwards of 32,000 people affected would normally get their jobs back when the government reopens. But the stakes of this shutdown are higher for federal employees, given President Donald Trump and Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, want to use a shutdown to permanently shrink the size of the government, according to reports.
Importantly, the HHS’ shutdown plan did not outline any permanent terminations.
