On Thursday Democratic US senators said they were inundated with “panicked” calls from federal workers from nearly the moment the announcement was made, because so few details were given about which branches or agencies would be cut. Kennedy said 28 department branches would be consolidated into 15, with a focus on eliminating positions such as human resources and IT.

She said the mission of public health workers was “making sure that you have the information you need if there is a huge flu epidemic in your region, whether or not you know your kids are safe or what you need to do to protect them.

“There isn’t a private company that’s going to come in and do that. That is why we have what is called a government agency, for the good of the people. It is not going to be replaced by some profit making-corporation.”