White House wants to cut this public health service corps by nearly 40 percent

The White House is proposing to reduce by nearly 40 percent the uniformed public health professionals who deploy during disasters and disease outbreaks, monitor drug safety and provide health care in some of the nation’s most remote and disadvantaged areas.

The proposal is part of a plan announced last week by the Office of Management and Budget to overhaul the federal government. It would cut the size of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps from its current 6,500 officers to “no more than 4,000 officers.” Administration officials, who have said the officers are “more expensive” than equivalent civilians, want “a leaner and more efficient organization” better prepared to respond to public health emergencies. They have not offered projections on how much might be saved.

All Corps members are officers who work as doctors, nurses, engineers and other public health professionals across the federal government.

The proposal would also create a Reserve Corps of government employees and private citizens, similar to that used by other uniformed services, to be mobilized in a public health emergency or to back-fill critical positions left vacant during regular Corps deployment.

Jim Currie, executive director of the Commissioned Officers Association of the U.S. Public Health Service, said the reductions would greatly affect the Corps’ ability to respond to disaster sites as it routinely does now.



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