The Trump administration’s focus on reducing the federal workforce has been felt at Arkansas’ world-renowned Food and Drug Administration lab.
Roughly 75 employees recently lost or resigned their jobs at the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) near Pine Bluff, according to the Arkansas Research Alliance, which partners with the lab and manages its relationship with the state.
The workers are among thousands affected by Tuesday’s mass layoffs and resignations at government health agencies across the U.S.
The 54-year-old lab is the only FDA center located outside the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. It conducts toxicological research for the regulatory community. Traditionally, the lab has employed more than 500 — a combination of 285 government employees, federal contractors and other researchers.
The affected employees were government workers. Their roles were eliminated through workforce reductions, voluntary resignations, deferred resignations and the mass layoffs of probationary employees across the federal government earlier this year, according to the Alliance.
Those probationary employees are in a state of limbo as the courts decide whether the Trump administration exceeded its authority when it took away jobs from newer government workers. At NCTR, those employees remain on paid administrative leave.
The employees out of work at NCTR are mostly in finance, human resources, communications and procurement. The impact of the staff reductions has already been felt, but the impact will grow even heavier in the coming weeks, officials said.
It will be particularly problematic for researchers who rely on the lab’s procurement officers to purchase materials and resources needed for their research projects.
“It’s surreal,” said Bryan Barnhouse, president and CEO of the Alliance. “But practically and functionally, they can only conduct the science for the things they have the materials for. When that runs out, they don’t have a way to procure more. So what happens to the experiments? What happens to all the money you’ve invested? For all intents and purposes, it’s on the chopping block.”
With a $77 million annual budget, NCTR generates an estimated $197 million in economic activity each year.
Employees across the massive U.S. Health and Human Services Department received notices Tuesday that their jobs were being eliminated, part of a sweeping overhaul designed to vastly shrink the agencies responsible for protecting and promoting Americans’ health.
The cuts include researchers, scientists, doctors, support staff and senior leaders, leaving the federal government without many of the key experts who have long guided U.S. decisions on medical research, drug approvals and other issues.
“The revolution begins today!” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote on social media as he celebrated the swearing-in of his latest hires: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the new director of the National Institutes of Health and Martin Makary, the new Food and Drug Administration commissioner. Kennedy’s post came just hours after employees began receiving emailed layoff notices. He later wrote, “Our hearts go out to those who have lost their jobs,” but said that the department needs to be “recalibrated” to emphasize disease prevention.
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