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NEW YORK — <\/span>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still has an Alzheimer\u2019s disease<\/a> program. Congress appropriated $41 million to it this year. There\u2019s just no one staffing it.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the agency’s Office on Smoking<\/a> and Health. Congress allocated $246 million for that. Its staffers were cut, too.<\/p>\n Same for the epilepsy program. Its sickle cell disease data collection operation. Its rape prevention unit.<\/p>\n Think of them as the CDC\u2019s zombie programs \u2014 they appear to be alive, at least according to legislation and congressional appropriations. But functionally they are dead or nearly dead, because the CDC experts who did the work were laid off by President Donald Trump’s administration or remain on leave \u2014 paid but not allowed to do their jobs.<\/p>\n The Atlanta-based CDC is charged with protecting Americans from preventable health threats. When Dr. Erica Schwartz<\/a> became the agency\u2019s latest director last week, she inherited these zombie programs and congressional pressure to bring some of them back to life.<\/p>\n In Schwartz’s confirmation hearing, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine pressed her to restart the smoking office’s dormant activities.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an office that is in statute, and it\u2019s an office that receives congressional appropriations,\u201d said Kaine, a Virginia Democrat. \u201cWill you follow the law if we appropriate money for this mission and the CDC?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI will always follow the law,\u201d Schwartz replied.<\/p>\n The decision to freeze the programs came from Schwartz\u2019s political bosses.<\/p>\n In April 2025, Trump’s Republican administration sent layoff notices<\/a> to thousands of employees at the CDC and other federal health agencies. It was part of a sweeping effort to remake the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and consolidate some of its programs under a new subagency called the Administration for a Healthy America. That reorganization hasn’t happened, amid congressional pushback.<\/p>\n But the layoffs did. Led by then-adviser Elon Musk<\/a> and the Department of Government Efficiency<\/a>, the cuts affected researchers, scientists, doctors, support staffers and senior leaders, leaving the government without many of the key experts<\/a> who long guided U.S. decisions on medical research, drug approvals and other issues.<\/p>\n The cuts were challenged in lawsuits and through pleas to legislators. <\/p>\n Some were reversed. Drastic cuts to the CDC\u2019s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, for example, were rescinded<\/a>. Other reinstatements<\/a> included staffers at labs that test for sexually transmitted diseases and support lead poisoning control.<\/p>\n But many of the cuts endured. As a result of litigation<\/a>, staffers who initially were laid off have been placed on administrative leave while the fight moves through the legal system, paid to not do their jobs.<\/p>\n Not all public health efforts associated with every impacted program stopped. Most of the CDC\u2019s budget is passed on to state and local programs, and much of grant processing has continued.<\/p>\n Staffers at the CDC and other federal health agencies “deserve a lot of credit for getting money out the door,\u201d said Eric Gascho, executive director of the Coalition for Health Funding.<\/p>\n But gone are seasoned experts doing research into the health threats, assessing which grant-funded programs work and which don’t and setting a national framework for best ways to save and prolong lives.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout the experts, the coordination is not there across the country\u201d in tackling public health problems, said Erika Sward, chief advocacy officer for UsAgainstAlzheimer\u2019s. \u201cYou’re often flying blind, and without a parachute, when you don’t have the CDC staff in place.\u201d<\/p>\n In January, Congress passed an appropriations bill, which became law, that specified funding for more than 200 projects and activities. The law requires that HHS maintain staff to carry out statutorily required program work, although it does not say how many staffers must be in each program to do it.<\/p>\n Since then, current and former CDC employees have compiled a list of dozens of funded-but-decimated CDC programs. They include:<\/p>\n \u2014 The Office on Smoking and Health, which tracked trends<\/a>, supported quit lines and operated the \u201cTips from Former Smokers\u201d ad campaign that researchers associate with billions of dollars in saved healthcare costs.<\/p>\n \u2014 A $41 million Alzheimer\u2019s initiative<\/a> for better surveillance, risk prevention and communications campaigns. Affected work includes development of a webpage that was to explain what\u2019s known about a potential link between menopause and Alzheimer\u2019s disease, whether early menopause is related to higher risk and whether hormone therapy<\/a> can lessen that risk.<\/p>\n \u2014 An $18 million program to support overdose prevention in tribal communities<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u2014 An $11 million program focused on tracking epilepsy and community programs that help people manage the condition.<\/p>\n \u2014 A sickle cell disease<\/a> data collection program, for which Congress appropriated $6 million.<\/p>\n \u2014 The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System<\/a>, the most comprehensive collection of data on the health behaviors and outcomes before, during and after childbirth. Researchers have been using its data to investigate the nation\u2019s maternal mortality<\/a> problem.<\/p>\n \u2014 A $2 million program focused on preventing drownings<\/a>.<\/p>\n Notably, the cuts affected a number of programs focused on the causes and prevention of chronic diseases. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said tackling chronic disease is his central priority, and he has faulted the CDC for not doing enough.<\/p>\n