Mass firings at a federal agency supporting community living efforts for people with disabilities are fueling concerns that funding will be disrupted and programs could be forced to close.

Nearly 50% of the staff at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Community Living was terminated this week, including the organization’s budget, policy, evaluation and communications offices, according to Alison Barkoff, a professor at George Washington University who led the Administration for Community Living under the Biden administration.

The firings were part of a broad reorganization of HHS, which announced last week that it would let 10,000 workers go. Overall, the agency indicated that it would shrink from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees when factoring the layoffs, buyouts and early retirements since the Trump administration took over.

The plan includes dismantling the Administration for Community Living, which was established in 2012 in an effort to bring together aging and disability programs across HHS. The agency funds and works with over 2,500 community organizations nationwide including centers for independent living, protection and advocacy systems, developmental disabilities councils and more.

“These RIFs will have a devastating impact on the programs ACL administers and the people who benefit from them,” Barkoff said, referencing the reduction in force notices that many employees received. “It will impact the ability of ACL to get funding out for critical services, to provide technical assistance to grantees, and to help shape policies that impact people with disabilities, like Medicaid.”

The timing of the change is especially concerning, she noted.

“I am particularly concerned about the immediate impact on people who rely on ACL’s critical programs because funding for the remainder of the fiscal year — the funding approved by Congress recently in the congressional resolution — had not yet been distributed before they terminated budget staff,” Barkoff said.

HHS representatives did not respond to questions about how many staff from the Administration for Community Living are being fired, how what’s left of the agency will be split or what will happen with funding that the agency has yet to disseminate to programs.

“Critical programs that support older adults and people with disabilities within the Administration for Community Living (ACL) will be integrated into other HHS agencies, including the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS),” an HHS official said last week. “This consolidation allows the department to better meet the current health needs of vulnerable populations across the country.”

The haphazard nature of the changes, however, is raising alarm bells. Representatives from multiple disability advocacy groups said they were caught off guard by the plan to break up the Administration for Community Living and more than 450 groups wrote to Congress urging opposition to the effort.

Many programs funded through the Administration for Community Living, including developmental disabilities councils, are supposed to be receiving their notice of awards around this time of year, indicating what their funding will look like, said Jill Jacobs, who served as commissioner of the Administration for Community Living’s Administration on Disabilities between 2021 and 2024 and is now executive director of the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities.

“All of the people who manage these awards were let go, so how will we get those funds?” she said. “I recognize that having a leaner government and having leaner programs is a priority for this administration and I understand that, but to make these changes without putting out any kind of plan or any kind of participation of anyone who knows how these programs work, I can’t imagine that this can happen without programs closing.”

Programs supported through the Administration for Community Living focus on everything from accessible transportation to alternatives to guardianship, respite care, improving home and community-based services and enhancing the direct care workforce.

“If those all go away we’re looking at real problems. Even if there’s just a momentary glitch, we’re going to have real problems,” Jacobs said.

Outside of the Administration for Community Living, disability advocates have also raised concerns about plans to have a new assistant secretary charged with combating “waste, fraud, and abuse” overseeing the HHS Office for Civil Rights as well as changes at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Health Resources and Services Administration.

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were cuts at the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, including the elimination of the Disability and Health Promotion Branch, which worked to promote the “health and full participation in society by people with disabilities across the lifespan.”

“We are deeply concerned about the reported layoffs at the CDC, particularly the significant cuts at the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. This center plays a critical role in supporting research, providing essential information and promoting public health initiatives related to autism,” said Kristyn Roth, chief marketing officer at the Autism Society of America. “Any reduction in these efforts could have serious consequences for the autism community through the loss of evidence-based information on screening and interventions, and support for the (home and community-based services) system.”

It’s not clear what additional impacts layoffs at the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and other divisions could have for people with disabilities.