Late last week, APhA learned of the dismissal of an unspecified number of federal government pharmacists. Below, please find the letter sent to the White House this afternoon. APhA is committed to advocating on behalf of our profession, and our incredible team of Government Affairs’ employees are working hard to obtain a reinstatement of those pharmacists who have been dismissed. We will keep you updated as events continue to unfold.   

For every pharmacist, for all of pharmacy.

My best,

Michael D. Hogue, PharmD, FAPhA, FNAP, FFIP
APhA Executive Vice President and CEO

February 18, 2025 

The Honorable Donald J. Trump
President of the United States
The White House 
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500 

Re: Urgent request to review and rescind federal health care staff layoffs 

Dear President Trump: 

The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) urgently requests that your administration reexamine and rescind the recent layoffs of pharmacists and their staffs at the U.S. Departments of Defense (DOD), Justice (DOJ), and Health and Human Services (HHS), including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These orders have significant unintended consequences for reducing American consumers’ access to high-quality, cost-effective health care. 

Pharmacists are essential to American health and well-being and engaged in every health care sector, ensuring patient safety, optimizing medication use, and contributing to team-based care. Pharmacists provide care directly to patients in all of our military service branches in domestic and foreign duty stations, in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency health corp. In addition, pharmacists are vital components of the public health system and equip other direct care providers with tools and resources through their vital work at the FDA, CDC, and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Americans have come to rely on these unbiased agencies to review, analyze, authorize, and approve safe, effective, and high-quality medications and products, and removing pharmacists and other staff from these agencies poses a dire risk to patients. Hazards these agency layoffs create include ineffective medication use and distribution processes and drug shortages at all points of care. 

The HHS secretary recently rescinded the layoffs of 950 probationary Indian Health Service (IHS) employees after IHS formally asked for an exemption for all health care workers. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) initially indicated that 2,200 probationary employees in IHS would be laid off, including nearly 100 doctors, 350 nurses, nursing assistants, pharmacists, and others. These potential layoffs would have represented 6% of the IHS workforce. These layoffs would have been catastrophic for the agency and direct care services because Indian country cannot afford emergency rooms and clinics being forced to shut down or significantly downsize, eliminating critical access to care. As HHS recognized, IHS had a 30% health care practitioner vacancy rate before implementing any Reduction in Force actions. A similar review of the vacancy rate for health care practitioners should be made at all federal agencies, and any current or planned layoffs should be immediately rescinded to protect patients’ access to health care.  

We appreciate consideration of this urgent request to ensure our federal agencies can meet our nation’s vital health care needs. APhA can help your administration lower health care costs, support local communities, and improve access to health care services in several ways. Many in rural communities have no access to health care except for their local pharmacist, and APhA offers our assistance to support your efforts to improve our nation's health. Please contact Michael Baxter on my staff at mbaxter@aphanet.org with any updates on this urgent request to review and rescind layoffs of any federal health care workers, including pharmacists and their staff. 

Sincerely, 

Michael D. Hogue, PharmD, FAPhA, FNAP, FFIP
APhA Executive Vice President and CEO