RFK Jr. purges CDC and FDA's public records teams, despite "transparency" promises

Teams handling Freedom of Information Act requests at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration were gutted Tuesday as part of the widespread job cuts ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., multiple officials said. The process of fulfilling FOIA requests from reporters, advocacy groups and others is a crucial way the public gains access to information on government data and records. 

All of the workers in the CDC's FOIA office were cut, two officials said. Two-thirds of the Food and Drug Administration's records request staff were also cut, down to 50 remaining. 

"Most still here don't do FOIA processing. They do litigation and other types of disclosure," said one FDA official, who was not authorized to speak publicly.