Congress Funded a $41 Million CDC Alzheimer’s Program and a $246 Million Smoking Office — Nobody Is Staffing Them

Congress appropriated $41 million this year for the CDC’s Alzheimer’s disease program and $246 million for its Office on Smoking and Health, but no one is staffing either, the Associated Press reported. The same is true of its epilepsy, sickle cell data and rape prevention programs. The experts who did the work were laid off in the April 2025 health-agency cuts or remain on paid administrative leave while litigation proceeds. A list compiled by current and former employees also includes an $18 million tribal overdose prevention program and the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, the main national maternal-health data source.

An appropriations law enacted in January funds more than 200 projects and requires HHS to maintain staff for statutorily required work. Democratic lawmakers say leaving the programs unstaffed violates the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, but there is no enforcement agency and the Republican-controlled Congress has shown little appetite to press it.

New director Erica Schwartz, confirmed Aug. 5, started last week and inherits them. Asked at her confirmation hearing whether she would restart the smoking office, she told Sen. Tim Kaine, “I will always follow the law.” HHS said only that Schwartz is “determined to support and empower employees.”