CDC Zombie Programs: Funded but Unstaffed, Director Pressed

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still has an Alzheimer’s disease program. Congress appropriated $41 million to it this year. There’s just no one staffing it. Then there’s the agency’s Office on Smoking and Health — Congress allocated $246 million for that, but its staffers were cut, too. Same for the epilepsy program, its sickle cell disease data collection operation, and its rape prevention unit.

Think of them as the CDC’s zombie programs — they appear to be alive, at least according to legislation and congressional appropriations. But functionally they are dead or nearly dead, because the CDC experts who did the work were laid off by President Donald Trump’s administration or remain on leave — paid but not allowed to do their jobs, according to AP News.

The Atlanta-based CDC is charged with protecting Americans from preventable health threats. When Dr. Erica Schwartz became the agency’s latest director last week, she inherited these zombie programs and congressional pressure to bring some of them back to life.

A Confirmation Built on Promises

In Schwartz’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine pressed her to restart the smoking office’s dormant activities.

“This is an office that is in statute, and it’s an office that receives congressional appropriations,” said Kaine, a Virginia Democrat. “Will you follow the law if we appropriate money for this mission and the CDC?”

“I will always follow the law,” Schwartz replied.

Schwartz was confirmed by the Senate in a 51-44 vote on August 5, becoming the 22nd leader of the CDC and the agency’s first confirmed director in nearly a year, as STAT News reported. She assumed office on August 12. Her resume includes medical and law degrees, a stint as deputy surgeon general, and a leadership position at the U.S. Coast Guard, according to Wikipedia.

How the Zombie Programs Came to Be

The decision to freeze the programs came from Schwartz’s political bosses. In April 2025, Trump’s Republican administration sent layoff notices to thousands of employees at the CDC and other federal health agencies. It was part of a sweeping effort to remake the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and consolidate some of its programs under a new subagency called the Administration for a Healthy America, as NBC News reported. That reorganization hasn’t happened amid congressional pushback, but the layoffs did.

Led by then-adviser Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, the cuts affected researchers, scientists, doctors, support staffers and senior leaders, leaving the government without many of the key experts who long guided U.S. decisions on medical research, drug approvals and other issues. The scale was staggering — the CDC lost roughly 2,400 employees in a single wave, about 18% of its staff, according to STAT News. Overall, the agency has lost more than 3,000 employees, more than one-quarter of its workforce, due to layoffs and resignations.

Some cuts were reversed. Drastic cuts to the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health were rescinded, and other reinstatements included staffers at labs that test for sexually transmitted diseases and support lead poisoning control, as CBS News reported. But many of the cuts endured. As a result of litigation, staffers who initially were laid off have been placed on administrative leave while the fight moves through the legal system — paid to not do their jobs.

A Union Tracks the Damage

In January, Congress passed an appropriations bill, which became law, that specified funding for more than 200 projects and activities. The law requires that HHS maintain staff to carry out statutorily required program work, although it does not say how many staffers must be in each program to do it.

Since then, current and former CDC employees have compiled a list of dozens of funded-but-decimated CDC programs. They include:

• The Office on Smoking and Health, which tracked trends, supported quit lines and operated the “Tips from Former Smokers” ad campaign that researchers associate with billions of dollars in saved healthcare costs.
• A $41 million Alzheimer’s initiative for better surveillance, risk prevention and communications campaigns.
• An $18 million program to support overdose prevention in tribal communities.
• An $11 million program focused on tracking epilepsy and community programs.
• A sickle cell disease data collection program, for which Congress appropriated $6 million.
• The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, the most comprehensive collection of data on health behaviors and outcomes before, during and after childbirth.
• A $2 million program focused on preventing drownings.

Notably, the cuts affected a number of programs focused on the causes and prevention of chronic diseases — even though U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said tackling chronic disease is his central priority.

The Legal and Political Battle

After President Richard Nixon, a Republican, refused to spend appropriated funds, Congress passed the Impoundment Control Act in 1974. The CDC’s zombie programs represent a violation of that law, Democratic lawmakers say. But there is no appropriations police or law enforcement agency that Congress can use to enforce the law, and Republicans control both the House and the Senate.

“President Trump is showing time and again that he will put politics ahead of Americans’ health — and sadly, my Republican colleagues continue to look the other way,” said U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, in a statement.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat who represents Georgia where the CDC is based, suggested legislators are watching whether Schwartz will administer the programs that Congress funded. “We will learn swiftly whether she intends to follow the law,” he said in a statement.

The Human Cost of Hollowed-Out Programs

Not all public health efforts associated with every impacted program stopped. Most of the CDC’s budget is passed on to state and local programs, and much of grant processing has continued. Staffers at the CDC and other federal health agencies “deserve a lot of credit for getting money out the door,” said Eric Gascho, executive director of the Coalition for Health Funding.

But gone are seasoned experts doing research into health threats, assessing which grant-funded programs work and which don’t, and setting a national framework for best ways to save and prolong lives.

“Without the experts, the coordination is not there across the country” in tackling public health problems, said Erika Sward, chief advocacy officer for UsAgainstAlzheimer’s. “You’re often flying blind, and without a parachute, when you don’t have the CDC staff in place.”

What Comes Next

Kennedy visited the CDC earlier this month and told employees, “My sole purpose is to allow you to do your jobs.” He didn’t address the funded programs that have no staff. In April, Kennedy said in a congressional hearing that he planned to hire 12,000 people — mainly to address chronic health conditions. But it’s unclear how many have been hired at the CDC since then.

“Not only have we not had any really significant hiring of CDC employees, but we’ve also had ignoring and stalling when it comes to those employees that had been laid off, who were supposed to have priority for some of those jobs,” said Yolanda Jacobs, president of AFGE Local 2883, the union representing CDC employees.

An HHS spokesperson said in an email that “Dr. Schwartz is determined to support and empower employees to ensure they have what they need to succeed.”

Schwartz faces a delicate balancing act: navigating between congressional demands to revive programs and her political bosses at HHS who ordered the cuts. Her confirmation hearing statements — “I will always follow the law” and “If I’m confirmed as the CDC director, the nation’s health and well-being will take primacy and I will never compromise on that” — suggest she may be willing to push back, but her position remains untested.

As the National Public Health Coalition noted in a statement, “Now, Dr. Schwartz needs to prove that her leadership will serve science and not the whims of politicians. CDC needs a Director who will protect public health workers, defend evidence-based guidance, and refuse any directive that would undermine public safety.”

The question of whether the zombie programs will be revived — and whether Congress can compel the executive branch to spend appropriated funds — strikes at the heart of the separation of powers. For the millions of Americans who depend on CDC-coordinated programs for everything from smoking cessation to maternal health surveillance, the stakes could not be higher.