A pedestrian walks by the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francisco. The regional Health and Human Services office in the Pelosi building will be closed amid sweeping cuts to federal health agencies.
Godofredo A. Vásquez/Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s San Francisco regional office will be shuttered this spring amid a broad culling of jobs at federal health agencies.
The office, located in the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building, consists of 318 staff who manage Medicare, Medicaid, health services for Native Americans and HIV/AIDS programs for Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, six American territories and nearly 160 federally-recognized tribes. “This shortsighted office closure would lead to critical service slowdowns for San Franciscans to get the resources they need and detrimental impacts to our public health response capabilities – all in the name of so-called ‘government efficiency,” Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi said in a statement confirming the move.
“Make no mistake: the reported plans to restructure HHS and close the San Francisco regional office would directly harm our most vulnerable communities and make America sicker,” Pelosi said.
Article continues below this ad
The closure of the regional office became public as nearly one-eighth of the enormous, 82,000-employee department received notices of dismissal Tuesday morning. Another one-eighth of the staff took early retirement and voluntary separation offers — meaning the agency will lose a quarter of its overall staff.
“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. said in a statement March 27. “This Department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”
Kennedy announced plans to consolidate the department’s 10 regional offices to five. The other regional office closures have yet to be made public.
Politico first reported the office’s closure.
Article continues below this ad
The Pelosi federal building can accommodate approximately 2,000 employees and currently houses offices for Pelosi, the Social Security Administration, the Departments of Transportation, Labor, Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development in addition to Health and Human Services. Of the HHS staff, 70 were told that their divisions will be closing, a source familiar with the closure said. Some San Francisco staff members would be relocated to Denver, officials said.
By closing the HHS San Francisco office, “the Trump Administration would choose to put the health and safety of Bay Area residents and all Californians in jeopardy, gut vital public health initiatives like the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, and potentially axe hundreds of career civil servant jobs held by hardworking Californians,” Pelosi said in a statement.
The building has been a target in recent years as its public spaces and surrounding neighborhood have struggled with homelessness, drug use and the resale of stolen goods.
In 2023, HHS employees based in the Seventh Street tower were ordered to work from home as a result of escalating safety concerns. The issue later led Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, to call for the building’s closure after comparing it to a “Halloween haunted house” due to rampant drug use at its doorsteps.
The Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building was also briefly targeted as part of a potential sale of federally-owned buildings across the country, the Chronicle previously reported. The list of 440 “non-core” buildings was taken offline hours after it was initially made public. It was republished online March 25, however it was significantly pared back – to only eight buildings.
Article continues below this ad
The Trump administration also targeted another San Francisco entity with ties to Pelosi: the Presidio Trust, the federal agency that runs the Presidio National Park. A Feb. 19 executive order said the entity was “unnecessary” and called for the functions of the Trust to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” The trust operates independently and has not received annual contributions from Congress since 2013.
Reach Shira Stein (she/her): [email protected]; X: @shiramstein; Bluesky: @shiramstein.bsky.social
