SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- Employees of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Region 9 Office in San Francisco were seen packing up their offices and wiping away tears on Tuesday. Employees' jobs were axed as a result of the Trump administration's decision to shutter the HHS regional office, located in a federal building on 7th Street, officials said. Tuesday's mass firings happened just one week after Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in grants from California public health departments. According to DOGE's database, at least five large federal grants were terminated on March 23 from the California Department of Health Care Services and California Department of Public Health. The grants were worth $204 million, $206 million, $187 million, $238 million and $332 million. Elon Musk holds a chainsaw reading "Long live freedom, damn it" during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland on February 20, 2025. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images) DOGE also slashed HSS federal grants from the University of California San Francisco and Stanford University, the department's website shows. On Tuesday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the public health funding cuts. California stands to lose more than $972 million from HHS grant cancellations, according to Bonta's office. Bonta's office wrote that, starting last week, "HHS abruptly, with no advance notice or warning, issued termination notices to state and local public health agencies across the country, purporting to end federal funding for grants that provide essential support for a wide range of urgent public health needs, including identifying, tracking, and addressing infectious diseases; ensuring access to immunizations; and modernizing critical public health infrastructure." Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, testifies during his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing on January 29, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) Bonta said, "Congress explicitly authorized funding for the grants at issue to help keep our country healthy and protect us from future pandemics. HHS and its Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., cannot unilaterally do away with that critical federal funding. Thousands of jobs and key public health programs and initiatives could be eliminated.”  Kennedy has vowed to “Make America Healthy Again," while Musk promised to reduce the national debt by rooting out financial waste and fraud.  Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi said closing the San Francisco HHS office will make "America sicker," and potentially axe hundreds of career civil servants from their jobs. Before Tuesday, 318 staff members worked in the office serving millions of Californians. VIDEO: Pelosi slams Trump over San Francisco HHS office closure The Trump administration's decision will have "detrimental impacts to our public health response capabilities -- all in the name of so-called 'government efficiency.'  It is notable that this reported decision was made by the Trump Administration’s leading vaccine denialist, Secretary Kennedy," Pelosi said. Pelosi continued, "This is reckless. And you know what the recklessness springs from? Their ineptitude. They don't even know what they're doing." A KRON4 news crew outside the building Tuesday morning saw workers leaving and carrying their possessions in boxes. Some laid-off employees in San Francisco said they only learned of the closure upon arriving at work. Julie Fong, who worked of the the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for 25 years, said, "We all received impersonal emails on April Fool’s Day and it was not an April Fool’s joke. It feels intentionally cruel and malicious, to be honest." HHS employees told KRON4 that they believe in their work, and they were stunned so many of their colleagues were let go. They also worry that the cuts will have a much wider impact beyond people who lost their jobs. "We oversee federally funded temporary assistance to needy families. We oversee federally funded childcare. Child support enforcement. The people who administer these programs are gone," an employee said. Kennedy announced a plan to remake the HHS department, which, through its agencies, is responsible for tracking health trends and disease outbreaks, conducting and funding medical research, and monitoring the safety of food and medicine. Nationwide, layoffs are expected to shrink HHS to 62,000 positions, lopping off nearly a quarter of its staff. On Tuesday afternoon, Kennedy wrote on X, "This is a difficult moment for all of us at HHS. Our hearts go out to those who have lost their jobs. But the reality is clear: what we've been doing isn't working. Despite spending $1.9 trillion in annual costs, Americans are getting sicker every year. In the past four years alone, the agency’s budget has grown by 38% — yet outcomes continue to decline. We must shift course. HHS needs to be recalibrated to emphasize prevention, not just sick care. These changes will not affect Medicare, Medicaid, or other essential health services. This overhaul is about realigning HHS with its core mission: to stop the chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again." The Associated Press contributed to this report. ...read more read less