Downsizing’s Next Target – NIOSH

On April 2, 2025, most of the leadership and research scientists at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) were terminated from employment. The termination resulted in a reduction of at least two-thirds of the NIOSH staff, or approximately 873 people.

Why Does it Matter?

NIOSH and OSHA were founded in 1970, with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration starting up on April 28, 1971. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) joined under the U.S. Department of Labor in 1977. OSHA and MSHA are responsible for developing and enforcing workplace health and safety standards. NIOSH is essentially the “test kitchen” of OSHA and MSHA – studying worker safety and health and investigating injuries and outbreaks such as COVID-19 and the 2023 fungal outbreak that required a shutdown of a paper mill in Michigan. Currently, NIOSH, along with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is assisting with and investigating the measles outbreak in the United States and maintaining the data of total outbreaks, hospitalizations, and deaths. NIOSH partners with OSHA and MSHA to develop “criteria documents” that recommend requirements and/or improvements that could include new health and safety standards. 

The Domino Effect of the Downsizing

The termination of the vast majority of NIOSH employees also impacts the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL). The NPPTL may not be widely known, but it is responsible for vetting and approving N95 respirators and other personal protective equipment (PPE). This, in turn, will likely reduce or slow supplies of PPE to hospitals and care facilities that require the certified PPE.

NIOSH is also part of the CDC, and multiple critical safety programs are within its purview, including the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer, which has been taken offline indefinitely, and the health program for the World Trade Center Health Program, which monitors the continued health conditions of survivors and first responders (which, for the present time, is avoiding cuts). The American Society of Safety Professionals has indicated that the “significant cuts to NIOSH threaten to weaken the scientific foundation of workplace safety and health.” 

What Is Next?

It is estimated that the Department of Health and Human Services, of which NIOSH is a part, will have its overall staff reduced by 10,000 employees. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has indicated that the terminations are part of the government’s overall plan to “right size” and get rid of redundant services and workers and reduce the size of the government. The remaining reduced NIOSH is anticipated to be combined with four other entities into a new government entity called the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA). The other four organizations to be combined under the AHA umbrella are the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. 

Several organizations have opposed the changes made by the administration. “Any weakening of centralized substance use disorder (SUD) expertise within HHS would be cause for alarm, especially amidst the ongoing deadly addiction and overdose crisis,” said Brian Hurley, MD, MBA, president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. Similarly, the HRSA program is committed to providing healthcare to individuals facing geographic challenges and who are financially or medically vulnerable – think telehealth.

While some of the governmental entities admit that there may be some redundancies in their organization, these individual agencies claim that the severity of the cuts will slow or stop the work and that we are in for a bumpy ride.

Employers with questions about how these recent cuts may impact their organization or what they can do to try to minimize the impact should consult with counsel.