Critical Tobacco Control Programs at Risk

On March 27, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it was cutting more than 10,000 jobs as part of a major restructuring that will impact operations at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), among other critical agencies.  ACS CAN issued a statement voicing concern that the reductions could severely threaten the nation’s fight against cancer.

Twenty states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit, New York et al v. Kennedy, alleging the March 27 directive and reductions in force (RIFs) have disabled HHS from executing its statutorily required functions as mandated by the US Congress.  The states claim they are losing critical services due to the cuts, and a federal district judge put the RIFs on hold by issuing a preliminary injunction against HHS.  The administration is appealing this decision to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on an emergency basis.  ACS CAN and other public health groups filed an amicus brief providing background to the court focused on the impact of HHS’s actions in the area of tobacco control.  The brief outlined the devastating effects of tobacco products on public health, how the challenged restructuring defies the agency's statutory obligations to prevent tobacco-related disease and mortality, and why the RIFs are "arbitrary and capricious"  in violation of the Administrative procedure Act, with emphasis on the work of the Office of Smoking (OSH) at CDC and the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) at FDA.