to whom else it may concern
What a protest letter reveals about the mood at federal agencies
Nearly 900 federal workers from more than 50 agencies signed onto a letter, published yesterday, condemning the Trump administration for executive overreach and urging Congress to step in. It’s the most recent in a series of letters from folks at different agencies criticizing the Trump administration for abandoning the agencies’ core missions. Some organizers initially hoped there would be thousands of signatures by the time the letter was publicly released, but the momentum wasn’t quite there as people weighed the risk to their jobs — and increasingly, their safety.
“Folks are feeling very unsafe not just in terms of their jobs, but also being in public around any kind of contentious issue just given the tense climate,” said Jenna Norton, one of the organizers. It’s not a theoretical concern. After Environmental Protection Agency employees signed a “declaration of dissent” criticizing the Trump administration’s leadership, dozens of employees were suspended without pay and several were fired. Read more from STAT’s Angus Chen and Anil Oza about the latest action and what it means.
policy
HHS wants to close a Miami organ transplant agency
HHS is moving to decertify a major organ procurement organization run out of the University of Miami Health System due to unsafe practices, poor training, understaffing, and administrative errors, agency leadership announced yesterday. The group, Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency, can appeal the decision. But if it goes through, it will mark the first time that any OPO has been decertified. The agency is one of four organizations coordinating transplants in Florida.
The move comes about two months after an explosive federal report revealed that a Kentucky OPO ignored signs of life in patients when authorizing attempted organ removals. (Kennedy warned then that he would decertify the Kentucky group if they didn’t comply with corrective action requirements, but no updates have been provided.) HHS is trumpeting the move to decertify the Florida program as part of a reform initiative for the organ transplant system announced with the initial report in July. Read more.
mental health
New federal data on deaths by suicide
In 2023, the overall suicide rate in the U.S. was about 14 per 100,000 people, according to new analysis in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. That’s consistent with the past five years or so, but there were changes within different racial groups.
Suicide rates among Black people in the U.S. rose 25% from 2018 to 2023, while rates among Hispanic people rose 10%. Suicide rates among white people decreased 3% in that same time. Suicide rates were continuously highest among American Indian or Alaska Native people — but those rates did decline 15% between 2021 and 2023.
The findings add to previously reported data on the early days of the pandemic, which found a similar increase in suicide rates among young people who weren’t white.
