FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: Senator Wyden wants info about HHS FOIA operations

FOIA News (2025)Allan BlutsteinComment

Sen. Ron Wyden Seeks Answers on RFK Jr.’s Purge of FOIA Staff

By Rachana Pradhan, KFF Health News, May 8, 2025

The Department of Health and Human Services’ mass dismissals of workers who release government records “raise grave transparency, accountability, and privacy concerns,” Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said Thursday.

In a May 8 letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. provided exclusively to KFF Health News, Wyden, the top Democrat on the powerful Senate Finance Committee, wrote that “it is hard to square your commitment to radical transparency” with HHS’ firing of workers who handled Freedom of Information Act requests.

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